🏷️ TAG… YOU’RE IT!
Will You Be One to Stand With Him?
No U.S. Army veteran should make their final journey alone.
On Saturday, October 3, 2026, people from across the area are being invited to help make sure U.S. Army veteran Lester Jewell McMullen Jr. (1965–2026) doesn’t make his final journey without a community beside him.
McMullen had no known surviving family, according to Black Hawk County Veterans Affairs. Now the community is being invited to take part in a formal escort honoring his life and military service.
The journey will begin at Locke Funeral Services ~ Tower Park in Waterloo. The public escort caravan is scheduled to leave at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 3, traveling from Waterloo toward the ceremony in Des Moines.
From there, in partnership with the Des Moines~based nonprofit Final Salute, McMullen’s journey will continue to the Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Adel, where he will receive his final entombment.
Final Salute works to provide dignity, respect and proper burials for unclaimed individuals, with particular attention to veterans. The organization first seeks to reunite remains with family when possible and, when that isn’t possible, helps secure an honorable permanent resting place.
There may be no known surviving family accompanying Lester McMullen on this journey.
But there can be fellow veterans.
There can be neighbors.
There can be people who never knew his name before today but believe that service to our country deserves to be remembered.
And on October 3, there can be a community making sure one U.S. Army veteran does not make his final journey alone. 🇺🇸❤️
This time, we’re not tagging just one person for doing something good. We’re tagging a whole community.
Will you be one who shows up?
Tag… You’re It! ❤️
Will You Be One to Stand With Him?
Deliverance Hope ~ Word ’Round Town
Keep Goin’ ‘Round Town
There’s always another story waiting just around the corner.