‘Nobody should go alone’: 1,500 strangers honor WWII veteran with no known family

The mourners started arriving hours early — veterans in uniform, strangers clutching American flags, police officers lining the route — all for a Massachusetts World War II Navy veteran many feared would be buried alone.

But when John Bernard Arnold III, 98, died May 6 with no known living family, a public plea from Hanover-Hanson Veteran Services sparked an extraordinary response, with roughly 1,500 people turning out Monday in Hanson, Massachusetts, to give him a hero’s farewell.

"This...