One vet who helped others, but died alone

In recent years, Miguel Lugo spent much of his free time in the apartment he rented in the Inwood section of upper Manhattan.

But on workdays, he relished helping others at the reception desk of the Audubon Partnership for Economic Development, a community organization in the largely Dominican enclave of Washington Heights, said co-worker Julio Hernández, a business specialist with that nonprofit.

There, Lugo was the first person to greet - in English or very carefully enunciated Spanish - the immigrants who arrived seeking guidance or help with translation. Born in Puerto Rico, he took pride in his bilingual skills.

Before he died in August 2008, Lugo, 76, rarely spoke to co-workers of his military service, though, except to say he was an Army vet.

He is one of 20 servicemen from various military branches who were buried with honors Saturday as part of a joint government and volunteer effort to give dignified burials to veterans whose remains have gone unclaimed in New York City's morgues, some for years.

"It's a relief to know that someone took care of him," Hernández said. "It was sad to see that he had no one out there."

The men died alone and had no close relatives or friends to arrange their funerals. Phone calls to neighbors at their last addresses yielded just a hint of recognition for Lugo and another former soldier among the 20.

In the case of Theodore Jackson, an Army private honorably discharged in 1979, two neighbors said they had seen him in their apartment building in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. But they didn't know who he was.

"He died in his apartment," said neighbor Yvonne Ruiz. "He didn't speak to nobody. Just picked up his mail and would go back inside."

Little is known about any of the other veterans, except for succinct biographical sketches that burial organizers compiled.

Lugo's entry reads: "Private First Class Miguel Lugo joined the U.S. Army on January 25, 1954, and served with the Artillery. PFC Lugo was honorably discharged on January 25, 1956."

A Freedom of Information request from the National Personnel Records Center yielded more information about Miguel Angel Lugo-Ollarvia's service. He joined the Army in Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico, and was with the 58th Field Artillery Batallion. He earned decorations for national defense service, marksmanship and good conduct.

To José Vargas, one of the immigrants and a neighbor who benefited from his translation work at the community center, Lugo was a helpful but lonely man: "I always saw him alone, and he walked very slowly down the street."

His co-workers noticed Lugo's absence after the long Fourth of July weekend in 2008. After several days, Hernández and co-worker Julio Alvarado went to check on him. They knocked on his apartment's door and got no answer. They called the police, who broke the door.

Lugo was alive, but he was sick and could not walk well. His co-workers hired a taxi and took him to the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx. When they visited again, he was glad to see them, Hernández said.

But the next call they got told them he had been sent to a hospice. The final call was from the morgue.