Funeral Detail - 12 Apr 2005
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When I got to the office on Tuesday, I had an email telling me that I would have a funeral later the same day at 1600. I replied to the NCOIC that it would be no problem and we'd leave immediately after the practice that afternoon. We have the same team that did a funeral last week and I knew they'd just need a little practice to be in sync after a few days of not handling the rifles. I also asked if the team knew or if I needed to contact anyone. I got a quick reply by phone and the NCOIC told me to meet him in front of my building and we'd go together to the units to notify the team members (we wanted them to show up to practice in the appropriate uniforms so we'd be able to leave right away).
When we met, he described more difficulties that he was having with the civilian in charge. The short notice on this funeral was part of the issue but really just a symptom of the long term problems that have plagued this rotation. He told me that he sent the civilian an email detailing these issues and CC'd our 1SG (who probably made a few phone calls). Long story short - poor communication is really killing the effort here. Isn't it always like that? No need to point fingers. My job is to take care of the detail and make sure the appropriate honors are paid. That's the important thing and all the backstage pissing contests are really not worth my effort to weigh in on. It pisses me off that I get short notice funerals but I won't let it get in the way of doing my job the right way. I will never do a funeral poorly and use someone else's ego issues as an excuse for me not handling my own business. I have too much personal pride in doing my duty to allow that to ever happen. If I screw up, it will be my fault. If my team is not prepared, it will be my fault. Period.
Wow, that was almost a rant... enough of that.
Right after we contacted the team members, the NCOIC got a call from the civilian. He asked that we meet in his office. We went and he told us that he realized it was short notice and that he hadn't really done a good job communicating with the NCOIC (apparently the email and phone calls that morning did some good). He talked to the family and explained that since the request wasn't within the regulation required time frame, we wouldn't be doing a full honors funeral, but would still support it with a two man detail. He asked that we provide two SSG's because he wanted to make sure we did a good job and because we'd cancelled the full honors. The odd thing was that the flag would be prefolded but we'd be unfolding it and refolding it after Taps. I thought this was odd, but didn't question it there.
I'm going to get off track again for a moment. Like I said, I don't like having short notice. But, I'll do them. If the person deserves full honors, I'll do full honors. I don't think we should be short changing families in order to make peace between two people that are not getting along and will have nothing to do with the actual funeral. That's just my opinion.
At practice, the other SSG and I ran through folding a flag a few times to make sure we had it down. Once we were comfortable, we practiced it again with the gloves on, just to be sure. We aggreed on a time to meet and left. The deceased was a retired Army officer, so we planned to get there early enough to make sure he was up on his responsibilities.
When we arrived, we met the CPT. He is actually the officer that has oversight of the funeral section and had participated in funerals before, so we spent all of about 10 seconds going over what we'd do. When we told the CPT about the folding request, he told us that he hadn't been told that and he thought it was a terrible idea. He said the family hadn't requested that. (My theory is that it was the civilians idea to add something to the ceremony since we weren't doing the rifle salute) He told us we would not be doing that. At that point, it made no sense to have two SSG's around, so since it was my turn, I told the other SSG to go and I'd stay.
I met the family. The son was a veteran who had served in the Vietnam War. He told us about his great grandfather that had lost a leg at Antietam. He told us that his father had served over 30 years and was a veteran of both WWI and WWII. This is where my rant from above comes from. I would have proudly and happily without complaint paid full military honors at a funeral of a 30+ year veteran of two wars. Short notice or not. Plain and simple. You bend/break the time requirement rule for notification for a ceremony like this. And that had been the initial call. But because two people can not get along... I get to be the face of the Army that says - "Too bad. Late notice. You get what we give. So sorry." The sinking feeling really hit me when he genuinely thanked me for being there despite the late notice. He knew it was late notice and had asked for the honors anyway and was happy to get what was sent.
He deserved better. His father deserved better. Fuck regulations and Fuck people with egos.
The ceremony went well. There was only one hiccup. About halfway through, there was a man that lived down the street that turned on his chopper. I'd normally say motorcycle, but this was one of those laid back, easy rider type bikes that really is a chopper. It was LOUD. Loud enough that it was audible inside the church. I was actually standing outside the door, so when the CPT stuck his head out, I motioned to ask if he wanted me to go see about quieting it down. He nodded, so I jogged down the street to the house. BTW, the chopper was painted neon yellow and green, so any cool points the guy might have had for having a chopper were immediately lost on me. Green and yellow? It looked like an ugly bag of skittles on wheels. Bleh. The guy didn't answer his door right away, although I did see him look out the window at me. I noticed that his van had a blue officer sticker from the Naval Post Graduate School, though, so I wasn't surprised that he kept an enlisted member waiting at the front door.
He finally answered and I told him there was a funeral taking place just up the street. He responded with "So?"
So?
SO?
SO!?!?!??!
M*****-F*****! If you don't turn off that GD bike, I'm going to. And you won't like what I do to your bitch ass paint job after.
OK, I didn't answer that way, but it ran through my head. I explained again that there was a funeral taking place and asked if he'd turn to bike off, please. He told me that he'd be leaving in about 10-15 minutes. So, I asked him one more time to please turn it off until then because it was audible inside the church where THE FUNERAL WAS TAKING PLACE. He finally agreed and I headed back up to the church. (Sure as shit, within two minutes of Taps being complete, the guy turned it back on and didn't leave until well after the funeral was over.)
When I got back to the church, the CPT told me that it was almost time. About two minutes later, he got his cue and moved to the front of the church. I played Taps and he presented the flag. When he came out, I explained what happened with the bike and why it took so long. He was especially annoyed when I told him that the guy was an officer out at NPS. Officers don't really like it when their peer group do things to make them look bad, much the same way NCO's are. He thanked me for coming out and we left.
As you can probably tell from my poorly conceived rants above, I wish that I'd brought out the entire team and performed full military honors. Otherwise, everything went well. I just wish I could have done more.
My Ecosystem Details
When we met, he described more difficulties that he was having with the civilian in charge. The short notice on this funeral was part of the issue but really just a symptom of the long term problems that have plagued this rotation. He told me that he sent the civilian an email detailing these issues and CC'd our 1SG (who probably made a few phone calls). Long story short - poor communication is really killing the effort here. Isn't it always like that? No need to point fingers. My job is to take care of the detail and make sure the appropriate honors are paid. That's the important thing and all the backstage pissing contests are really not worth my effort to weigh in on. It pisses me off that I get short notice funerals but I won't let it get in the way of doing my job the right way. I will never do a funeral poorly and use someone else's ego issues as an excuse for me not handling my own business. I have too much personal pride in doing my duty to allow that to ever happen. If I screw up, it will be my fault. If my team is not prepared, it will be my fault. Period.
Wow, that was almost a rant... enough of that.
Right after we contacted the team members, the NCOIC got a call from the civilian. He asked that we meet in his office. We went and he told us that he realized it was short notice and that he hadn't really done a good job communicating with the NCOIC (apparently the email and phone calls that morning did some good). He talked to the family and explained that since the request wasn't within the regulation required time frame, we wouldn't be doing a full honors funeral, but would still support it with a two man detail. He asked that we provide two SSG's because he wanted to make sure we did a good job and because we'd cancelled the full honors. The odd thing was that the flag would be prefolded but we'd be unfolding it and refolding it after Taps. I thought this was odd, but didn't question it there.
I'm going to get off track again for a moment. Like I said, I don't like having short notice. But, I'll do them. If the person deserves full honors, I'll do full honors. I don't think we should be short changing families in order to make peace between two people that are not getting along and will have nothing to do with the actual funeral. That's just my opinion.
At practice, the other SSG and I ran through folding a flag a few times to make sure we had it down. Once we were comfortable, we practiced it again with the gloves on, just to be sure. We aggreed on a time to meet and left. The deceased was a retired Army officer, so we planned to get there early enough to make sure he was up on his responsibilities.
When we arrived, we met the CPT. He is actually the officer that has oversight of the funeral section and had participated in funerals before, so we spent all of about 10 seconds going over what we'd do. When we told the CPT about the folding request, he told us that he hadn't been told that and he thought it was a terrible idea. He said the family hadn't requested that. (My theory is that it was the civilians idea to add something to the ceremony since we weren't doing the rifle salute) He told us we would not be doing that. At that point, it made no sense to have two SSG's around, so since it was my turn, I told the other SSG to go and I'd stay.
I met the family. The son was a veteran who had served in the Vietnam War. He told us about his great grandfather that had lost a leg at Antietam. He told us that his father had served over 30 years and was a veteran of both WWI and WWII. This is where my rant from above comes from. I would have proudly and happily without complaint paid full military honors at a funeral of a 30+ year veteran of two wars. Short notice or not. Plain and simple. You bend/break the time requirement rule for notification for a ceremony like this. And that had been the initial call. But because two people can not get along... I get to be the face of the Army that says - "Too bad. Late notice. You get what we give. So sorry." The sinking feeling really hit me when he genuinely thanked me for being there despite the late notice. He knew it was late notice and had asked for the honors anyway and was happy to get what was sent.
He deserved better. His father deserved better. Fuck regulations and Fuck people with egos.
The ceremony went well. There was only one hiccup. About halfway through, there was a man that lived down the street that turned on his chopper. I'd normally say motorcycle, but this was one of those laid back, easy rider type bikes that really is a chopper. It was LOUD. Loud enough that it was audible inside the church. I was actually standing outside the door, so when the CPT stuck his head out, I motioned to ask if he wanted me to go see about quieting it down. He nodded, so I jogged down the street to the house. BTW, the chopper was painted neon yellow and green, so any cool points the guy might have had for having a chopper were immediately lost on me. Green and yellow? It looked like an ugly bag of skittles on wheels. Bleh. The guy didn't answer his door right away, although I did see him look out the window at me. I noticed that his van had a blue officer sticker from the Naval Post Graduate School, though, so I wasn't surprised that he kept an enlisted member waiting at the front door.
He finally answered and I told him there was a funeral taking place just up the street. He responded with "So?"
So?
SO?
SO!?!?!??!
M*****-F*****! If you don't turn off that GD bike, I'm going to. And you won't like what I do to your bitch ass paint job after.
OK, I didn't answer that way, but it ran through my head. I explained again that there was a funeral taking place and asked if he'd turn to bike off, please. He told me that he'd be leaving in about 10-15 minutes. So, I asked him one more time to please turn it off until then because it was audible inside the church where THE FUNERAL WAS TAKING PLACE. He finally agreed and I headed back up to the church. (Sure as shit, within two minutes of Taps being complete, the guy turned it back on and didn't leave until well after the funeral was over.)
When I got back to the church, the CPT told me that it was almost time. About two minutes later, he got his cue and moved to the front of the church. I played Taps and he presented the flag. When he came out, I explained what happened with the bike and why it took so long. He was especially annoyed when I told him that the guy was an officer out at NPS. Officers don't really like it when their peer group do things to make them look bad, much the same way NCO's are. He thanked me for coming out and we left.
As you can probably tell from my poorly conceived rants above, I wish that I'd brought out the entire team and performed full military honors. Otherwise, everything went well. I just wish I could have done more.
My Ecosystem Details