Today was my first full honors funeral. The deceased was a veteran of 21 years of service. He was also an employee of 20 years for the US Postal Service after retiring from the military. The family requested full honors, to include pall bearers, for today's service. The odd thing was that they asked for pall bearers at the chapel and at the cemetery. After talking to some of the NCO's that have had this detail before, I found out that this using military servicemembers as pall bearers in both locations was a rather unique request.
Yesterday at practice, my firing team leader drilled the team on the gun salute for nearly an hour. By the end, the team was in sync and looked (and sounded) great. We then moved to the shade to discuss the rest of the ceremony before practicing. I talked them through all of the details and how we would go about loading and unloading the casket. We usually train to remove the casket for the vehicle at the cemetery, so practicing putting the casket into the vehicle wouldn't be much of a stretch for them.
We moved on to our practice casket and we walked through the steps we would need to take. We then ran through two practices to include the folding of the flag with gloves on. It's one thing to fold the flag bare-handed, but it's much more difficult to do it with white cotton gloves. By the end of the practice, the team was had the movements down and had twice folded the flag successfully.
I have to quickly say that other than explaining what I wanted done, the bulk of the training was carried out by the firing team leader. She drilled the firing team members on the rifle and she also made them practice folding the flag multiple times. At the end of practice, she even made them go over the already synced rifle commands twice more with gloves on. My job is really very simple. I manage overall, receive the flag after it's folded, and present it. Add in a few salutes and thats the bulk of my work. The firing team leader is really the reason for the success in training and exection and she did an excellent job.
After the practice, I drove out to the chapel so that I would be sure of how to get there today. I also wanted to see the chapel so I could prepare the team in the morning with a description. I talked for a brief time with one of the ladies from the funeral home and she showed me the chapel. The visitation/viewing was actually going on at the time, so I was limited in my ability to look around, but the chapel was fairly simple in design. The casket sat at the front and the feet end of the casket was already pointed at the side door, where I was told the vehicle would be parked the next day.
We departed early this morning. I am the kind of person that likes to show up to things insanely early, so we got on site at 0800. The ceremony was scheduled to start at 0900. This gave me time to take my firing team NCO inside and show her the layout of the chapel. I also coordinated once again with the funeral home personnel. I came back out and briefed the team. They would wait outside the side door and when the service was over, the side door would be opened once to allow people to view the body one last time before moving outside. I told them that the door would be closed while the funeral home personnel closed the casket and then they would reopen the doors and that would be when they moved in.
Everything was moving along well. The service started a little late and ran a little long, but that is completely understandable. I stood at the rear of the chapel during the service and marched forward as the doors were closed. The casket was closed and the flag, which had been partially draped over the casket was smoothed out and a band was used to secure it to prevent the wind from blowing it off. But then, the personnel did something that I wasn't ready for. We train that the feet of the deceased always travel first. We set up the team so that our two smallest soldiers would have the feet (the light end of the casket). The man turned the casket around, so that the head would travel out the door first. I quickly asked him why he had done that and he said that they always do it that way. The doors were immediately opened, so I had no time to argue the point. The team marched in, with the family and friends watching from just outside. I could immediately see the confusion on their faces. I had told them how the casket would be and they had briefely seen that it was set up the right way when the doors were opened the first time.
As they marched up, I quietly told them to secure the casket and load it as it was positioned. I'm sorry to say that sometimes, servicemembers can be the most anal and inflexible people, to the point of foolishness at times, but on this occasion the team adapted quickly and without appearing to miss a step. The two airmen positioned in the center on either side were able to reach forward and help our two smallest team members lift the heavy end of the casket. The team then marched out and slowly loaded the casket into the vehicle. Again, the team had to adapt. Our original exit was blocked by people so instead of forcing our way through the crowd I did an about face and moved off in a different direction. What made this difficult is that after loading the casket, the team is facing each other and on the command 'Ready, Face' the two columns have to conduct a left or right face as appropriate. Well, since the exit was blocked, they had to face a different way. The last thing I saw before I marched off was the team conducting the facing movement properly, even though it wasn't where they had planned to go. The firing team NCO had managed to communicate to them where she wanted them to face without having to break the silence and actually tell them.
Now, we had to load up in the van and beat the rest of the people to the cemetery. We were told that the procession would be delayed for 5-10 minutes but this turned out to be untrue. The line of cars started to pull out of the parking lot just as we did, so we had to pass them and then try to make good time to the cemetery ahead of them. When we arrived, I had enough time to place the bugler and the firing team and to speak to the lady on site about the route they wanted us to use to carry the casket. Again, they changed things on us and we had to adapt on site. They wanted the head to travel first and then the family and friends would be sitting at the head of the grave. I had the firing team lay their weapons down and moved them to the road. The vehicle arrived almost immediately. I salued as the vehicle passed by and then moved to speak quietly to the firing team while all the people moved to the grave site. I explained to them that we would once again carry the casket backwards to how we trained and that we would also have to modify how we folded the flag.
Normally, after the gun salute, the team will lay down their rifles and march to the casket. They line up on either side and fold the flag over the casket. The people at the feet end do the folding and pull the flag to them as they go. Once complete, the team will pass the flag forward to the head, where the firing team NCO will receive it. The overall NCOIC stands in front of the head of the casket and will recieve the flag from firing team leader. The team leader will then put three pieces of expended brass from the gun salute into the folds of the flag and then salute the flag. The team leader then marches the team off while the NCOIC presents the flag.
Well, because of the change in the position of the casket, I would have to stand at the foot. I told the team to make sure when they marched up to fold the flag, that they should march to their normal positions and fold it normally. I also told the team leader that I would march to her to receive the flag after it was folded. That way there would be a minimal effect on the folders and we would hopefully get the folding done well.
When the vehicle was opened, the team leader marched the team up and they pulled the casket out. While they did this, I slowly saluted and then followed them to the grave site. The team then marched off to the weapons and prepared for the salute. One of the sons of the deceased spoke for a short time and then told the assembly that the military would now show honors. I moved to the casket and slowly saluted again. I heard the firing team load the weapons and waited for the shots. The first volley sent a physical wave through the assembly. The volley was perfectly in sync, but only four of the five weapons fired. On the second volley, only one rifle fired. In the few seconds as the team leader said "Ready... Aim..." I prayed that at least one weapon would fire for the third volley. At that moment, I could not think of anything worse than hearing a "Fire!" and five clicks in unison. Fortunately, one rifle did successfully fire. The bugler (a Marine today) then played Taps.
The team lay down the weapons again and came forward to fold the flag. They took up the correct positions and began to fold. There is a time during the folding where you can tell ahead of time if the folding will work out right. The first time a point crosses into the blue field, if the point ends up inside a star, you know that the folding will go well. I silently breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the point fold over into the center of the star. When the flag was folded, I moved around the casket to stand behind the firing team leader. When I saw she had hold of the flag, I gave the command "Ready, Face" and took the flag from her. I held it open and she put in three pieces of brass. Unfortunately, two of the pieces fell out. She asked me in a whisper if she should get them and I gave her a quick, short nod. She retrieved the fallen brass and placed them deep into the folded flag. I turned the flag around and brought it close to my chest and she slowly saluted the flag. I then gave her a "Ready, Face" and she took command of the firing team and marched them back to the weapons.
I stepped forward to the widow and said, "On behalf of a grateful nation, I would like to present to you this flag, in memory of the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one." She took the flag and then I straightened up and slowly saluted the flag one more time. I marched back to my position and waited for the word that the ceremony was over. I then marched away, signaling to the firing team leader to do the same. They followed me up the road, back to our van.
As we cleared our weapons and prepared to go, a man approached us. It was one of the sons and he wanted to thank us for our participation. He told us that we had done a good job and he was proud of the honors we rendered his father. He thanked us on behalf of his family and told us that his father would have appreciated the work we did. I can not express how much this man's words meant to me. At a time when this man must be grieving, he took a moment to come and express to us his thanks and appreciation.
I try to do my best on this detail, partly because I think that I should always try do my best in all things that I do. But, I've learned that more importantly than that, I will have many funerals to attend while on this detail, but the families at these funerals will only see one of them. And to them, that is the most important one I do. Years from now, they won't remember that only one rifle went of during the second and third volleys. They won't remember that Taps was played on an electric bugle (if they even knew that in the first place). If we do our very best and adapt to the situation in a professional manner, then they will remember that servicemembers came out and paid respect to their family member. And I think that is the most important reason to do our best.