Military funeral honors

It is a legal entitlement, but only on request

Since 2000, federal law has required the Department of Defense to provide military funeral honours for an eligible veteran whenever the family requests them. The statute sits at 10 U.S.C. 1491 and it defines a floor rather than a ceiling. Every armed service maintains honours teams to meet it.

The request is the part that fails. Honours are not applied automatically because no national system knows a veteran has died in time to act on it. The funeral director normally makes the call, so say the words out loud at the arrangement meeting. He served, we would like military funeral honours. If the family is not using a funeral home, the family can contact the service honours coordinator directly.

What the honours detail does

The statutory minimum is a detail of at least two uniformed members of the armed forces, at least one of whom is from the parent service of the person who died. That detail folds and presents the flag to the next of kin and sounds Taps. It takes only a few minutes and it is the part of the day most families remember.

Rifle volleys, colour guards and full honours

The three rifle volley that most people picture is not the statutory minimum and is not guaranteed. Where it happens at a veteran funeral it is very often provided by a volunteer honour guard from a veterans service organisation, a local post or a state honour guard, working alongside the military detail. Those organisations do this at no charge and they are usually glad to be asked, so it is worth a direct call to the nearest post.

The rifle volley is also not a twenty one gun salute. A gun salute is artillery, rendered for heads of state and certain senior officers. The graveside volley is a separate custom with separate origins, and conflating the two is the most common misunderstanding about a military funeral.

Full honours, meaning a band, an escort unit, a caisson and a firing party, are reserved for particular ranks and circumstances and are chiefly a feature of Arlington National Cemetery. Availability of any element beyond the minimum depends on the service, the region and how much notice the honours team has.

The flag, the folding and the presentation

The burial flag itself comes from the Department of Veterans Affairs at no cost, and it is applied for on VA Form 27-2008. Funeral directors usually handle the application, and many post offices and VA regional offices issue them. One flag is provided for each eligible veteran and it is not replaced if it is lost, stolen or damaged, so treat it accordingly.

The flag is draped over the casket with the union, the blue field of stars, at the head and over the left shoulder. For a cremation it is presented folded, or draped over the urn table rather than the urn itself. It is folded into the familiar triangle by thirteen folds, with only the blue field and stars showing when it is complete.

A widely recited script assigns a separate meaning to each of the thirteen folds. It is moving and it is popular, and it is worth knowing that it has no official standing. Neither the Department of Defense nor the VA prescribes those meanings, and honour guards are not required to recite them. If it matters to your family, ask whether the detail will include it rather than assuming.

The flag is presented to the next of kin, kneeling, with the spoken words offering the flag on behalf of the President of the United States, the veteran’s service and a grateful nation. The exact wording differs slightly between services. If more than one family member would like a flag, the VA provides only one, so the practical answer is to buy additional flags and have the detail present the official one.

Taps, and the ceremonial bugle

Taps is twenty four notes long and takes under a minute. A live bugler is used where one is available, and the shortage of military buglers is real, so many details use a ceremonial bugle, which holds a small electronic device that sounds the call from inside the bell of the instrument. It looks and reads as a bugle from the seats.

Volunteer bugler networks exist in most of the country and will play a veteran funeral at no charge. If a live bugler matters to the family, ask early, because it depends entirely on who is free that day.

Who qualifies

Eligibility for military funeral honours is broader than eligibility for burial in a national cemetery, and the two are decided separately. In general terms honours are provided for military members who die on active duty or in the Selected Reserve, for former members who served on active duty and left under conditions other than dishonourable, and for former members of the Selected Reserve who completed at least one term of enlistment or period of obligated service and left under conditions other than dishonourable.

A dishonourable discharge removes the entitlement, as does conviction of a capital crime. Because eligibility rests on the character of the discharge, the discharge document is what the honours coordinator will ask for. Veterans funeral benefits sets out the separate tests for a national cemetery gravesite, the burial allowance and the government headstone.

How to request honours

1. Say it at the arrangement meeting. The funeral director contacts the honours coordinator for the relevant service and makes the request on the family behalf.
2. Produce the DD Form 214 or equivalent discharge paperwork. This is what establishes eligibility, and it is the single item families most often cannot find.
3. Give as much notice as you can. Honours teams cover large areas and are scheduled in advance. A request made a couple of days ahead is far more likely to be met in full than one made the same morning.
4. Ask separately about a rifle volley. Ring the nearest veterans post or state honour guard, because the military detail may not provide one.
5. Apply for the burial flag on VA Form 27-2008 if the funeral home is not doing it for you.
6. If burial is in a VA national cemetery, the National Cemetery Scheduling Office coordinates the committal service and the honours together when the interment is booked.

If you cannot find the discharge papers

Military records are held by the National Personnel Records Center and can be requested by the veteran next of kin. Requests are made online or on Standard Form 180, and the National Archives publishes both routes. Where a death is imminent or has just occurred, say so on the request, because emergency requests connected to a funeral are handled on a faster track.

Look first in the places these documents actually live. A safe deposit box, a fire box, the back of a photograph album, or filed with the county recorder, since many veterans recorded their discharge locally on returning home. That last one is free and frequently works. The document checklist lists everything else worth finding at the same time.

Where honours can be rendered

At a national cemetery, at a state veterans cemetery, at a private cemetery graveside, at a funeral home chapel or at a church. Honours are not restricted to a national cemetery and the family does not have to choose between a familiar plot near home and a military farewell.

Honours are also available where the person is cremated. The flag is presented folded, and the ceremony can be held at a scattering, at the interment of an urn or at a memorial service weeks later. If you are weighing the options, cremation compared with burial sets out what each route allows, and funeral etiquette covers what guests should do while honours are being rendered, which is to stand and stay silent.