Serving those who served

Marion County Memorial Honor Guard staff photo taken at Florida National Cemetery [Marion County Memorial Honor Guard].

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Posted July 4, 2024 | By Caroline Brauchler
caroline@ocalagazette.com

Most people count themselves lucky to avoid funerals, but the members of The Marion County Memorial Honor Guard aren’t “most people.” These brave men and women attend an average of five funerals a week and consider it an honor to pay tribute to veterans by providing full military honors as they are laid to rest.

On funeral days, a group of eight veterans on average don their uniforms and get ready to travel to the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell to serve at the funerals of veterans who, like them, put their lives on the line for their country. Oftentimes, it is veteran Navy Senior Chief Don Kennedy and Army Capt. Steve Petty who answer the call to serve other veterans.

“I thought that I would never be able to hear “Taps” again after I left the service in Vietnam,” Petty said. “The reality is that the love and the respect that we get from the families that we are showing how much we are honoring their veterans is almost overwhelming.”

Petty served in the Army from 1964 until 1972 and fought in Vietnam from 1967 until 1968. Kennedy, the captain and CEO of the Honor Guard, was an aviation electronics technician chief petty officer. He served in the Navy from 1971 until 1993, led several commands, and was stationed aboard the USS Forrestal and the USS Nimitz.

The Marion County Memorial Honor Guard is a volunteer nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Its members come from all branches of the military. During a funeral service, members of the Honor Guard escort the deceased veteran, salute the deceased and their family, deliver prayers during the service, provide a rifle salute, play “Taps,” provide keepsakes for the family, and more.

An optimal service would have 12 members of the Honor Guard present, including a chaplain, bagpiper, rifle bearers, flag presenters, readers, a bugler, and more. In a typical week, the honor guard provides military honors at four or five funerals, but sometimes they do more than one service in a day.

Kennedy said he often learns a lot about the veteran who is being laid to rest, and that it’s an honor to be a part of their life story, even if it’s at the very end.

“I listen to military backgrounds, what they were like as a family member, and some of their interests, and you get a sense of how important the military service of the veteran was relative to the family, and how much they had shared,” Kennedy said.

The honor goes beyond just the services provided on the day of the funeral.

“We are spending the tremendous time, effort and an emotional toll of providing those honors, because our veterans deserve that,” Petty said. “Our veterans are supposed to receive that, and we wanted to make sure that for every veteran that we can, we pay those honors to.”

Any veteran is eligible for military honors at their funeral, and typically receive them at their family’s request or at the request of the funeral home. The flags displayed at the services include the American flag, a MIA/POW flag, and a flag for the branch of military that the veteran served in.

“We normally have a bagpiper who plays the service song of the veteran,” Kennedy said. “If it’s Navy, he would play “Anchors Aweigh,” for the Air Force, he would do the “Wild Blue Yonder.”

In addition to the services at the Florida National Cemetery, the Honor Guard provides military honors for services at local funeral homes, cemeteries, or any place where a family wishes for a service to be held.

“Last year, our van did well over 20,000 miles on Highway 75 and our volunteers did probably about 60,000 miles in total getting to (services),” Petty said. “We went pretty much three times around the world (in mileage).”

The Honor Guard provides this resource while being completely unfunded by any other agency or organization. The funds needed for time, effort, travel, materials and more come from donations, honorariums, or funds from the members themselves. The Honor Guard is partnered with the Community Foundation of Ocala/Marion County to raise money, Kennedy said.

“It gives us the ability to travel like to places like Orlando, and we have traveled as far south as south of Tampa (by road),” Kennedy said. The group has also made a trip to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia where they performed services and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Even more so, the families of veterans don’t have to pay a cent to send off their loved one with full military honors from the Honor Guard. They are paid for their service in gratitude, from the families of veterans who have peace of mind knowing they honored their loved ones in the best way possible.

“Some of the family members really are not that aware of much of their loved one’s story, because so many veterans are reluctant to talk about their service, even with their family,” Petty said. “When they see how much that veteran is honored by fellow veterans, it means an awful lot to them.”

In addition to the services provided, the families also get to take home mementos such as the American flag that was laid on the casket, a challenge coin, a pin for the veteran’s branch of the military, a certificate, a poem, and bullet shell casings, Kennedy said.

The Honor Guard’s services don’t stop at funerals—they also perform pinning ceremonies at hospice centers to honor veterans before they pass.

“When some veteran is in the last week or so of their lives, before they go, we want to make sure they understand how they are honored,” Petty said.

The Honor Guard is also a sister organization to the Veteran Resource Center, which works to help veterans and their families find information about local, state, and federal benefits and services for veterans. A huge issue for the VRC is supporting veterans who contracted cancer from exposure to chemical agents, such as for those who served in the Gulf War.

The men and women of the Honor Guard provide for their fellow veterans, and many hold the sentiment that when it is their turn to be laid to rest, they will receive the same honors from their colleagues, Kennedy said.

“When it’s one of our own, we will turn out with a large number of people,” Kennedy said. “It is always an honor to serve the veterans and their families.”

For Petty, the pride felt through serving in the Honor Guard is not a pride of patriotism, but rather a pride of brotherhood, he said.

“When I go to these funerals, the pride I get is from helping those veterans, not for helping my country. I did that back when I went to Vietnam,” he said. “It feels like I get to serve our veterans—our brothers.”

Through this act of love, the services support the living as much as they honor the dead.

“The military honors are for that veteran, but in reality, they have more impact on the living,” Petty said. “We are as prone to cry at “Taps” as the family that’s there.”