Hopefully most freepers would not let their emotions run away from them based on a newspaper story - and one from the Chicago Sun Times no less!
They constantly run stories about The Man screwing over the poor folk. And if it's a Jewish Man it sells more papers.
I am not familiar with CST but you are right about newspaper stories not being truthfull or complete. Your post was dead on also. The family should never have let certain stuff go into the storage place. A flag and some medals and dog tags take up very little space, wherever you live. He should have given it up whenever family first requested it. It was his legally, but morally, it would have been the right thing to do, particularly being a war casualty. He kept the stuff for four years to see if he could sell it, then when no buyers came along, he decided to do what he should have to begin with. I have bought storage units at auction, and would not keep anything like that if I could contact to original owner.