April 29 – “Field trip”

The Honor Guard Academy has a session on proper techniques for folding the flag at a funeral and presenting it to the grieving survivors.  Training for such a serious and solemn occasion can take a really stressful toll on the presenters, so sometimes a little levity is helpful to break up the tension.  On one such occasion the presenter knelt on one knee before one of the instructors to present the flag.  The instructor sniffled a bit, pretending to cry.  The student took that in stride and removed his cap, placing it in the instructor’s hands as well.  And then he shocked everyone when he quietly, and without breaking a smile, said, “Oh, and there is one other thing.”  With that he reached into his pocket and pretended to bring out and open up a ring box.  Needless to say the instructor lost his focus just a bit.  That’s one that will be remembered a while.

The group’s assignment yesterday was to prepare a funeral.  But it was not just a random, make up your own details kind of thing.  The instructors created a scenario of a line of duty death and the students had to work together to role play talking to the families and the funeral home and the heads of the departments and even the press.  One instructor transformed himself into a reporter from the National Inquirer who was trying to gain access to the proceedings.  The guys went out of their way to be patient and kind to him at first, but he continued to be a problem and eventually wound up “being arrested.”  I got to be a part of the scenario as a clergy consultant, and I have to admit, I did get into the role almost as much as the instructors did.  I threw a few wrenches into their venue plans when I told them the local Cardinal would be coming to the service and the church simply wouldn’t hold more than 160 people.  I also refused a request for a dog to be in the church.  They ended up changing to a bigger venue, which was the point of that glitch anyway.  Typically line of duty deaths draw way more guests than could ever be anticipated.  To their credit, the students did a tremendous job.  One of the guys from Dallas had been through several real life situations, so he took command of the group and helped them through everything. 

And all that happened before 10:00.  The next phase was a field trip to a local mortuary.  Malloy and Sons Funeral home graciously opened up their entire facility to the group, so they could walk through standing guard at caskets.  Again, the guys had learned the procedures well earlier in the week, so here on site they were able to execute with very little difficulty.

Lunch was next, with phase two at the City Cemetery, where they would walk through an actual on-site funeral, with one casket on a fire truck and another in a hearse.  I never made it to lunch.  When I got to the parking lot I had a flat on the truck.  Big old bolt sticking in it.  And a flat on the spare.  Poor form on my part, I know.  My Dad would have really “Tsk’ed” me for that one.  I managed to get hold of Nathan, and while he came I got the tire loosened and the spare off its rack.  He tried to fill up the spare, but it wouldn’t hold any air.  So we ended up taking both tires to Firestone to be repaired.  Chris met us there, gave me the car so I could get to the cemetery, and Nathan took her to his house where she borrowed one of their cars so she could pick up Cailyn while Nathan and April headed into Texas City to pick up the crawfish for April’s birthday bash on Saturday.  Whew.  How’s that for on the spot logistical planning?

I wasn’t too late for the mock graveside.  I played the officiant role in the procession, as they unloaded caskets and followed a flag detail to the mock gravesite.  Some of the police officers had shotguns to portray a 21 gun salute.  There was even a bugle to play taps.  Fascinating contraption.  A tape player of sorts (OK, OK, I’m showing my age) was inserted into the bugle.  With a tap of a button, all the bugler had to do was hold the instrument to his lips and allow the recording to play.  During one of the preparation run-throughs, the music didn’t start right away, so the bugler turned the bugle around to look at the mechanism.  And of course it started playing right into his face.  Good thing that didn’t happen during an actual funeral.  Teachable moment.

It took almost three hours, but Firestone finally managed to repair the leak in one tire and put a new one on the spare.  Chris took me back to the truck and we got the tire back on.  Forgot the hubcap though.  Seems it was supposed to go on before your put the tire onto the truck.  Great.  I didn’t stop to fix it, though.  I didn’t hook the spare onto its moorings, either.  Those will be projects for another day.  Like maybe today.

Mark 10:27 says, “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’”

Father, thank you for the opportunity these fire fighters and police officers had to experience this hands-on training for such a solemn occasion.  Help them remember the training and to call on their new network of resources if they should need it.  Amen.