Our Mission

Never Forget Our Veterans Foundation was founded in 2010 to preserve the legacy of American veterans, support efforts to account for the missing, and engage in environmental and humanitarian projects in their honor.

We are currently focused on the following initiatives:

MIA Recovery
We are working to raise awareness and funding for private efforts to find, recover, and bring home an estimated 400 U.S. Marines missing since WWII on Tarawa Atoll in the Republic of Kiribati. We have an overpowering sense of debt and duty to the missing, and only when we stop searching will they be forgotten. For this reason, we will never give up the search. Learn more here.

Tarawa Living Memorial
Concurrent with efforts to bring home Tarawa's missing, we have developed a plan to permanently clean up the heavily polluted “Red Beach,” where more than 18,000 Marines went ashore to fight Japanese forces in November of 1943. Our proposal centers on importing high efficiency incinerators that will process waste while capturing heat from the process to power a reverse osmosis desalination system to generate 40,000 gallons of clean drinking water each day. Learn more here.

Support for Veterans
We are involved in multiple outreach programs in support of veterans and their families in the Los Angeles community. We regularly provide support to veterans who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), homelessness, joblessness, and other challenges. Learn more here.

Above: Kurt Hiete, Managing Director, with Tarawa veteran Dean Ladd on the tarmac at Bonriki International Airport in Tarawa after a dignified transfer of American remains in 2010.

  Photo courtesy of Kurt Hiete.

---