At this point, there are Veterans being buried without full military honors. Reason being:their family members can not locate their DD214 forms after their passing. It's an important document that a funeral home and VA need to prove you were a veteran in order to receive a veterans funeral service. In the midst of an unexpected death, these forms can not often be located within the 1-2 days needed to turn them in. Instead, veterans are being buried without these honors, and this seems a bit disgraceful.
I propose that when the VA is contacted by a surviving family member they should be able to see if a DD214 has been filed with any VA office in the United States. If one has not been filed, the VA should have a backup procedure to verify a veterans service;that does not take up to 6 weeks.