Funeral Detail - 21 September 2006

Published on September 25, 2006 By chiprj In Blogging

I volunteered to take the funeral on Thursday earlier in the week. Originally, the overall NCOIC wanted me to take one of the new Soldiers that had just started the detail the week prior. When we got to practice on Tuesday, we found that all the Soldiers that had been brand new to the detail the previous week had been replaced. We still had our crew of Airmen that had been with us for a few weeks but we've been hoping to get a second team trained up so we didn't have to always rely on the same people.

Towards the end of the practice on Tuesday, I asked the new Soldiers if any of them would like to volunteer to go with me on Thursday to the two man detail. After they all looked at each other for a second or two, one put her hand up and said she would go. I spent a few minutes describing the difference between the full honors ceremonies and two man... err two person... two Soldier honors ceremonies. I then told her to be ready to go at 1130 on Thursday.

On Thursday I double checked the directions and printed them out. The cemetery was in Salinas and I'd done one service there during my last rotation on the detail. It was the one where we were notified extremely late of a time change and when we got there, they were waiting for us. I think at the time I said I felt as if I had performed a drive by funeral. I really didn't want something like that to happen again, so I planned on getting there early.

Well, I don't like Salinas much. I rarely go there and I especially dislike driving in or near downtown. I'm not very familiar with the streets. I also remember that this cemetery was hard to get in to. The last time I went, I couldn't pull directly in the entrance from my lane because of a cement divider on the street. I had to almost all the way around the block, make a u-turn, and come back. I guess I was too busy thinking about how things had gone wrong the last time and how much I dislike driving through Salinas, because I missed my turn. We ended up spending about 25 minutes driving around while I tried to figure out where I had missed a street. I eventually found the right street but turned the wrong way. When the addresses started going down instead of up, I at least knew where I had to go.

The good news was that all that driving around chewed up standing around time at the cemetery. When we got there, some of the family and friends were just starting to arrive. This service was actually in the same corner as the one I had been to earlier this year. I found a place for the bugler and went over the order of events one more time with her. Right after I finished that, I saw the carriage and line of vehicles pulling in through the gate.

I took position so that the carriage would have to pass me. As it did, I saluted. Once it stopped a little beyond me up the road, I dropped my salute and waited for the limo to pull up. I remembered the funeral director from the other service and he introduced me to the widow. He also let me know that I would be presenting a special flag that day. They had already given the normal flag to the family, but the flag they had today had been flown above the US Capitol building in honor of the deceased on his last birthday earlier this year.

I carried the folded flag while the pallbearers carried the casket to the grave. Once we got there, I placed the flag on top of the casket and saluted. I took a position a little closer to the casket than I normally do because it was very windy and I didn't want the flag being blown off the side of the casket. The service was short and then they told the family we would perform military honors. I had moved the bugler closer once I'd seen how windy it was, so everyone was able to hear it. After Taps was complete, I presented the flag and a family member read from a certificate describing that the flag had flown over the Capitol building.

On the drive back, I used the time to teach the bugler a lesson from the SSG chiprj big book of important Army things to know (I just made that up). Always give yourself enough time to recover from your mistakes. Also, do a good map recon and pay attention to your route!

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Comments

Dr Guy

on Sep 25, 2006

That must be some book!

pseudosoldier

on Sep 25, 2006

Again, mass kudos to you for your service.

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