June 21, 2023

'Carolyn' is now home

By The American Legion
Honor & Remembrance
‘Carolyn’ is now home
Vietnam War veteran Herman Halmon receives the urn holding the cremains of his wife from Lee Nantz, who found the urn four years ago, and SAL member Matthew Paul. (Photo by Melvin Brown)

Sons of The American Legion member instrumental in helping return cremains of 9/11 Pentagon attack to her family.

Matthew Paul was in a building across the street from the World Trade Center while working for Verizon on Sept. 11, 2001. The now nearly 20-year member of Sons of The American Legion Squadron 13 in Bennington, Vt., remembers vividly what he witnessed. And those memories are why Paul worked diligently over the past two years to return to her family the cremains of a woman killed on that same day at the Pentagon.

On June 16, Paul was on hand for a small, private ceremony at Kenneth H. Nash DC Post No. 8 in Washington D.C., where cremains of Carolyn Halmon were returned to her husband, Vietnam War combat veteran Herman Halmon. The couple had been married nearly 30 years before Carolyn was killed while working as a budget analyst in the Office of the Secretary of the Army.

Paul, who lives in Fairfield, Ct., knew what he needed to do when he took possession of the urn from a friend – driven by what he saw across the street from him in Manhattan nearly 22 years ago. “I saw the west side of the building blow out with fire,” he said. “I watched a lot of people jump, and those families never saw those people again. I just knew I needed to make it my best effort to return that urn.

“My experience in New York City that day was very upfront and personal, and I’ve got nothing but bad memories. This allows me to put a better spin on that day and feel good about something around that day.”

Paul had come into possession of the urn through Lee Nantz, whom he is friends with through Nantz’s wife. Nantz was operating a scrap metal business and came across the urn around four years ago. After struggling to find any Halmon family members, he reached out to Paul.

“When we discovered that it was from 9/11 at the Pentagon, we felt that we were in some way obligated but not obligated, but wanted to have an attempt as best as we could to try to get it to the right people who could at least put it where it should be,” Nantz said. “We kept finding it was very difficult to do. We kept running into a brick wall until we thought of Matt. Knowing that he loves … The American Legion would maybe be a way this could get through to the right people. And daggone it, it worked.”

Paul also ran into struggles trying to locate Carolyn’s surviving family. At someone’s urging, he shared the story of the urn on an Instagram 9/11 memorial site. Shortly thereafter, he was contacted by someone who had worked at Dover Air Force Base following 9/11 and had helped process the names of some of the victims of the Pentagon attack. The employee had come to know the Halmon family, who came to 9/11 memorial services at the Pentagon every year. Paul was able to reach out to Halmon through a letter and received a phone call within a week.

Halmon and his family already had received Carolyn’s cremains and had held a funeral and interment in the fall of 2001. The second set of cremains were found later and processed at Dover, but were later stolen when a storage facility was broken into and the thieves attempted to sell the urn to Nantz, who kept it in an attempt to return to the family.

Halmon was shocked to learn the stolen cremains had been located. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I just said, ‘What?’ I called my daughter and she said, ‘are you sure?’ I’m speechless. I just can’t believe it. It’s breathtaking. It was like I had a second closure.”

Paul worked with The American Legion’s Washington, D.C., office and the Department of D.C. to schedule a meeting with Halmon to return the urn to him at Post 8, which was honored to host the event.

“When I heard the story that it went through so many hands and so many people trying to find the home where it belongs to, I said, ‘We need to be a part of this,’” Post 8 Commander David Carmichael said. “A lot of folks were trying to do the right thing. And finally, the mission has been accomplished. We got to the end of the road.”

In addition to members of Post 8, Halmon and Paul, American Legion national staff attended the event, as did Nantz and his wife. Lee said seeing Halmon finally receive the urn was “hard to put into words … to finally get it to the right person that should have it. It’s a great feeling to have it for this long and finally hand it over and know it’s at home.”

Halmon said he’ll never forget Paul’s commitment to get him the urn. “I call him the bounty hunter. He did a lot going out of his way to make sure the family got this urn back,” he said. “This guy will be close to my heart until I die. My family’s all going to know about this man.”

But Paul wants to share the credit. “I’m in this role virtually by the hand of God,” he said. “All of these other people stepped up, they heard the story and were moved, they opened their hearts, and they did whatever they could to make this happen. And Carolyn is now home.”

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