Funeral Detail - 7 Jan 06

Published on January 11, 2006 By chiprj In Blogging

I had my second funeral of this rotation on Saturday, 7 Jan 06. This was another two man job and was at a cemetery in Seaside that I'd been to a number of times before. At the Thursday practice before, we only knew about one Saturday funeral and the overall NCOIC had planned on doing it. On Friday, I got a call that I'd need to come in on Saturday and take care of a second funeral.

When I got to the base on Saturday, everyone was there and ready. The NCOIC had originally planned to take extra Soldiers with her, so she just had one of them come with me. We drove to the cemetery and arrived a little early. We went inside and confirmed the location of the grave and when and where they wanted the military honors. We were told that the service in the chapel would be fairly short and then they would drive the casket out to the site. They told us they didn't need our presence for the chapel service, so we practiced folding a flag once and then did the waiting.

When we saw people filing out of the chapel we got into our positions. I knew that they were going to take a small loop around the cemetery to allow everyone time to walk up to the grave. So, I waited outside the chapel for the carriage to pass me and I saluted. I then walked up the road to near where the carriage would park and waited for it to pass me again. When it did, I saluted again. I then positioned myself behind the carriage a little ways and centered on the back door. When the pall bearers removed the casket from the carriage, I saluted once more. I then followed the casket in to the grave and after it was set down, I saluted one more time. I then moved off to the side to await the grave side service.

It was a short service and then the minister turned to me and invited me forward. I once again centered myself on the casket and rendered a salute. Once Taps was complete, the bugler came around to the opposite end of the casket and we secured the flag. We took a couple side steps and then slowly and carefully folded the flag. When we fold the flag, the NCO is just there to hold the end. All the folding and work is done by the bugler. At the end, all I do is tuck the remaining fabric into the fold. He then presented it to me and saluted the flag. After he marched away, I moved over to the son and presented the flag to him, following that up with one final salute for the flag. I then moved back to my original position to await the end of the service.

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Comments

Dr Guy

on Jan 11, 2006

Thank you.

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