Posted on May 1, 2023
Do any members of the Guard or Reserves have a BN SOP for funeral details they are willing to share?
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I know my NG have Honor Guard personnel or units so it might be different than M-DAY/TPU units. Regardless, anything would be helpful considering we have nothing at our unit.
Career Counselor
Career Advice
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
Military Honors for Servicemembers that have passed is one of the statutory duties of the military Services and something they take very seriously. The Services even have reporting requirements to Congress regarding how many and (you never want to do one of these) missed funeral service (what it's been arranged and the Honor Guard doesn't show up or does and doesn't execute their duties to standard).
As such, they have put a lot of effort into ensuring that resources are available to all that have the mission to render a final tribute to our fallen brother-in-arms (as such, I'm slightly taken aback at your question as I find it a failing of someone up the chain if your unit didn't receive a LOT of guidance when given the mission).
The National Guard Bureau funds a full-time technician for each state to operate the Military Honors program. From your profile, I am taking a SWAG that you're in the state of Tennessee - the contact information is here* and they should have information for you.
If you're in another state, you can locate the state coordinator by searching on the term "Military Honors" along with your state.
IF for some reason you strike out with them, the Veteran Service Organizations in your area as well as the State Guard often have Honor Guards for military honors as well.
As for something "right now" to get you started (still reach out to the state coordinator for the info they have), Military One Source has a great page* that covers the basics as well as links pointing you towards additional guidance.
Additionally, TC 3-21.5 (especially chapters 12 & 14) should give you a good start.
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* TN Military Honors coordinator - https://www.tn.gov/military/programs-benefits/military-family-programs/funeral-honors.html
* Military One Source - https://www.militaryonesource.mil/leaders-service-providers/sp-l-casualty-assistance/commanders-reference-standards-and-training/
As such, they have put a lot of effort into ensuring that resources are available to all that have the mission to render a final tribute to our fallen brother-in-arms (as such, I'm slightly taken aback at your question as I find it a failing of someone up the chain if your unit didn't receive a LOT of guidance when given the mission).
The National Guard Bureau funds a full-time technician for each state to operate the Military Honors program. From your profile, I am taking a SWAG that you're in the state of Tennessee - the contact information is here* and they should have information for you.
If you're in another state, you can locate the state coordinator by searching on the term "Military Honors" along with your state.
IF for some reason you strike out with them, the Veteran Service Organizations in your area as well as the State Guard often have Honor Guards for military honors as well.
As for something "right now" to get you started (still reach out to the state coordinator for the info they have), Military One Source has a great page* that covers the basics as well as links pointing you towards additional guidance.
Additionally, TC 3-21.5 (especially chapters 12 & 14) should give you a good start.
-----------------------------------
* TN Military Honors coordinator - https://www.tn.gov/military/programs-benefits/military-family-programs/funeral-honors.html
* Military One Source - https://www.militaryonesource.mil/leaders-service-providers/sp-l-casualty-assistance/commanders-reference-standards-and-training/
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What would you like? I do funeral details weekly (this week three alone, and I could have taken more if my schedule allowed for it).
The whole SOP is spelled out for us. We even have a funeral coordinator on long term orders to ensure mission success 100%. I can simply provide you his Mil Mail.
The fact you are not being provided this information as part of your funeral detail duty is a red flag.
There is a lot to it. What I have on my end is simply getting to and from the funeral and conducting the actual service and flag ceremony, and then the coordinator has his SOP regarding how he receives the mission and tracks how he assigns details to TPU's and full time staff, and then there is the part before his part where the representatives of the deceased service member reach out to the military for the funeral detail so it can get allocated out to our region.
Where are you in regard to the chain of communication of the mission?
At a Unit level I presume you'd need something along the lines of when a mission is allocated to your specific unit you have an SOP that allocates your soldiers to said required detail.
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How it basically works in my area is the mission is requested (usually from a funeral home) and it gets allocated to our region. Then our coordinator on orders reaches out to a short list of TPUs who will get first dibs on the detail (this is a pretty good gig to be on that list, and there are never enough of us).
If a TPU soldier on the short list doesn't take it, then it is allocated to a unit that is on a rotational status for funeral details from their pool of TPU's.
If all efforts to get a TPU to do the detail then the issue is forced, and an AGR is ordered to do the duty. The mission WILL NOT FAIL.
That's the gist of it.
Then regarding the actual service and how we conduct ourselves is of course it's own thing, but as I have found out doing dozens of these things, just try to look sharp and add to the service and honors for the family. They run the show. So every one is it's own thing.
The whole SOP is spelled out for us. We even have a funeral coordinator on long term orders to ensure mission success 100%. I can simply provide you his Mil Mail.
The fact you are not being provided this information as part of your funeral detail duty is a red flag.
There is a lot to it. What I have on my end is simply getting to and from the funeral and conducting the actual service and flag ceremony, and then the coordinator has his SOP regarding how he receives the mission and tracks how he assigns details to TPU's and full time staff, and then there is the part before his part where the representatives of the deceased service member reach out to the military for the funeral detail so it can get allocated out to our region.
Where are you in regard to the chain of communication of the mission?
At a Unit level I presume you'd need something along the lines of when a mission is allocated to your specific unit you have an SOP that allocates your soldiers to said required detail.
*********************
How it basically works in my area is the mission is requested (usually from a funeral home) and it gets allocated to our region. Then our coordinator on orders reaches out to a short list of TPUs who will get first dibs on the detail (this is a pretty good gig to be on that list, and there are never enough of us).
If a TPU soldier on the short list doesn't take it, then it is allocated to a unit that is on a rotational status for funeral details from their pool of TPU's.
If all efforts to get a TPU to do the detail then the issue is forced, and an AGR is ordered to do the duty. The mission WILL NOT FAIL.
That's the gist of it.
Then regarding the actual service and how we conduct ourselves is of course it's own thing, but as I have found out doing dozens of these things, just try to look sharp and add to the service and honors for the family. They run the show. So every one is it's own thing.
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SGT (Join to see)
Awesome feedback, sir. How it has worked for us thus far is our Regional Division 81st in Ft Jackson) will send out the mission and if our unit is assigned to it it get pushed to our line companies. I’ve done about a dozen this way, as well as another dozen or so with the local Veterans Honor Guard (retirees) just to continue to help when I can.
However, the last mission we received was in March and it was with less than 24 hours notice and we had to scrounge up people for the detail (full honors). That is what prompted me to consider finding/putting together a BN level SOP so that we aren’t in the same predicament in the future trying to scramble and find uniforms at the last minute.
Any materials you can provide I would be appreciative of! I’m uber familiar with the actual process once we get assigned the mission and conduct the Honors, but the admin and long term preparation for our unit is non-existent at this point.
However, the last mission we received was in March and it was with less than 24 hours notice and we had to scrounge up people for the detail (full honors). That is what prompted me to consider finding/putting together a BN level SOP so that we aren’t in the same predicament in the future trying to scramble and find uniforms at the last minute.
Any materials you can provide I would be appreciative of! I’m uber familiar with the actual process once we get assigned the mission and conduct the Honors, but the admin and long term preparation for our unit is non-existent at this point.
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CPT (Join to see)
SGT (Join to see) - shoot me a mil mail, and I'll hook you up with our coordinator.
Speaking of funeral details, be on the look out for the Goodwill sourced flags. They a few inches shorter than required, and you run out of room and can't tuck the flag in. This can be prepared for if you know what to be on the look out for. However, you wont know until the moment the soldier on the stars sides sees the "Goodwill" mark alone the grommet portion of the flag when they pull it off the casket.
So all I can do so far is give the folder a heads up that it's a short flag, and they basically fold in half the first fold, and take it from there. But it's always a crap shoot.
I'm trying to get my hands on one so we can definitively nail down this PITA flag.
Speaking of funeral details, be on the look out for the Goodwill sourced flags. They a few inches shorter than required, and you run out of room and can't tuck the flag in. This can be prepared for if you know what to be on the look out for. However, you wont know until the moment the soldier on the stars sides sees the "Goodwill" mark alone the grommet portion of the flag when they pull it off the casket.
So all I can do so far is give the folder a heads up that it's a short flag, and they basically fold in half the first fold, and take it from there. But it's always a crap shoot.
I'm trying to get my hands on one so we can definitively nail down this PITA flag.
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SGT (Join to see)
CPT (Join to see) thank you for the heads up, sir! I think I ran into that situation once early on and couldn’t figure out why there was a difference. Makes more sense now!
I’ll message you shortly!
I’ll message you shortly!
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