Sent Saturday, April 12, 2008. I have been to some funerals/memorials which have had the Honor Guard present. It is a powerful thing to be a part of.
Today I took part in the Honor Guard for a deceased veteran. I have known him for the past 35 years or so, and have been friends with several of his children. He was a member of the ever thinning ranks of World War Two veterans.
Those of us who answered the call, and are members of organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, provide the Honor Guard for our fallen comrades, whether or not we ever knew the deceased. We do this because they deserve it, and because we know that the time is approaching when we will be the one being honored.
Three Guns and Taps. A folded Flag.
It may not sound like much, but there is no higher honor for an ordinary veteran. At grave side, the family Pastor or Priest reads scripture, offers words of comfort, and a prayer. The service is then turned over to the commander of the Honor Guard. Words honoring the veterans service to his country are read, and another prayer is offered. The commander then calls, “Detail, ATTENTION “ “PRESENT ARMS “. Right hands snap from side to eyebrow. Rifles go from butt plate on the ground to a chest high two hand hold. Flags are hoisted to the air. All this is done in unison. Immediately following, the commander of the rifle squad calls, “Squad, ATTENTION “ “PRESENT ARMS “ “PREPARE TO FIRE. READY. AIM. FIRE. READY, AIM, FIRE. READY, AIM, FIRE.” With the first volley, a very predictable thing happens. Everyone in the funeral party jumps. And then the saddest of sounds. Through the noise of the following volleys can be heard the wailing cry of the widow or mother, and sometimes both. And then Taps is played on the bugle. The Honor Guard is then called to Order Arms. The flag is removed from the casket and folded into a triangle. If the deceased has been cremated, the flag would have been folded prior to the grave side service. The flag is then presented to the widow or mother of the deceased, “On behalf of the President and a grateful Nation.”
I have served on many an Honor Guard, and I still find it quite impossible to keep a dry eye in the face of what I have described. Usually, one or more of the family will approach and thank us for what we have done. But we have really not done so very much. We have but offered Tribute to one who has earned it.
Ordinary veteran? That is not a derogatory. The term in itself is an honor. If I may borrow a phrase. God must love the ordinary veteran, for He made so many of us.
Three Guns? The number of guns being fired is unimportant. We get as many veterans to turn out as possible, and the more in attendance, the more guns that are fired. It is the number of times the guns are fired. Three volleys for an ordinary veteran with good paper.
Good Paper? That simply means Honorably Discharged.
“Day is done, gone the sun, from the lake, from the hill, from the sky. All is well, safely rest. God is nigh.”
Tags: aim, American Legion, deceased, Fire, folded flag, honor guard, ready, three gun salute, veteran, Word War II, World War Two, WWII
May 20, 2008 at 9:24 pm |
Carl, your words, ‘it may not sound like much but there is not higher honor for an ordinary veteran . . . caught my attention. Not that your entire description of a veterans’s final “send off” was not riveting, I somehow latched on to those few words. I just could not help comparing the reasons for why our young men and women were sent into service back in the early forties—your father among them— compared to why our young men and women are dying today in Iraq. I wonder: in another sixty eight years and more, will those who died in Iraq receive the same honors as those veterans of World War II receive today? I hope so.