Strangers Unite to Ensure Veteran who Died Was Not Alone or Forgotten FILE -- In this Nov. 12, 2018 file photo, Howard Tibbits of the Patriot Guard Riders takes a private moment during a military ceremony at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Mich., to inter the remains of 20 veterans found at Cantrel Funeral Home in Detroit. (Dale G.Young /Detroit News via AP) 21 Feb 2021 The pews were empty and the service brief. Only a few had gathered to pay their last respects to John Shepherd Herbst, a 71-year-old veteran of the Vietnam War who died on Jan. 4. He'd been alone, not just in the hospital room, where he was on a ventilator for two weeks battling coronavirus and renal failure, but in the world.