Funeral Honors team
aids ceremony at
Road Atlanta

Spc. Adam Dean
124th MPAD
Georgia Army National Guard

 BRASELTON, Ga. – Three members of the Georgia National Guard’s Military Funeral Honors Team participated in a ceremony honoring the Corvette Racing Team prior to the 11th Annual Petit Lemans held at the Road Atlanta Race Track, Oct. 4, 2008.

 Sergeant 1st Class Kim Gilleran, Sgt. Javier Lugo and Pfc. Wesley Burford, all full-time members of the Special Honor Guard Team, hoisted an American flag at the Corvette Corral just before the race began.

 “We are raising a flag flown over the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in honor of all those who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Gilleran.

 Before being raised, the flag had been presented as a gift by Maj. Gen. Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General, to Gary Claudio, manager of the Corvette Racing Team. Corvette had provided Nesbitt with 25 all-access passes to distribute to Guardsmen interested in seeing the race.

 This celebratory event represented a stark departure from the usual tasks assigned to the Funeral Honors Team. Lugo, a team instructor, explained that their full-time job is to provide burial honors for fallen Soldiers, Guardsmen and veterans.

 “We participated in about 105 funerals last month alone,” said Lugo.

 According to Lugo, there are three different types of military funeral honors ceremonies, including a standard honors detail, a seven-person detail and a full military honors detail, said Lugo.

 In the standard detail, a three-person team honors veterans with an honorable discharge on their Certificate of Release, typically specialists and sergeants he explained. Seven-person details are for retired service members with 20 years of service, and active duty Soldiers, Guardsmen and Reservists not killed in action. A full military honors detail is reserved for those killed in action, retired officers and sergeants major, said Lugo.

 Burford, who has only been with the team for two months, takes the job very seriously. “I feel honored to be involved in this. It’s a real privilege,” he said.

 “Any event I serve in is a privilege, including this one. We’re here to serve and to do what we have to do, and at the end of the day, it’s an honor,” said Lugo.