Snowflakes swirled among their rifles and flags like frozen fragments of the past as the vets bid farewell in a way that veterans do for one of their own.
Once, they served in different military branches. But on this morning, it didn't matter. They had come to answer the call of duty, tradition and camaraderie, while taps drifted in the wind.
Any day is Memorial Day for these and other volunteer honor guard members across Northeast Ohio who provide a proper military send-off to veterans.
All honorably discharged veterans of active duty service or the Reserves are entitled to ceremonial military honors at their funeral, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This ceremony includes folding and presenting the U.S. burial flag and playing taps. The duty can be performed by current service members or veterans organizations.
Volunteer honor guards offer final salute
Volunteer honor guards across Northeast Ohio make sure every veteran gets a formal military funeral service.
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The group also selected two buglers who would "play" the ceremony's closing taps through use of an electronic device inserted in the bugle's bell, providing an amplified recording of the song -- a necessity for many honor guards because of a shortage of people who can blow a bugle.
Then, a final precaution as an order rippled through the ranks: "Cellphones off!"
Honor guard formed in 2001
This honor guard was formed in 2001 by Paul Gavin and Tim "Doc" Anderson after they discovered that some veterans groups would not provide funeral honors if the deceased vet was not a member of their organization.
"That sort of ticked me off," said Gavin, 70, of Parma. "So we said we don't care what organization they belonged to. As long as they're an honorably discharged veteran, we would start performing final honors, and that's how it grew."
Today the Joint Veterans Honor Guard -- composed of 30 mostly Vietnam-era veterans -- offers final honors at more than three dozen veteran funerals a year in Cuyahoga County. The group also appears at veteran-related civic events and several Memorial Day ceremonies.
Their services are provided at no charge. Gavin's wife, Patt, also prepares a "Battlefield Cross" framed document detailing a deceased veteran's service record and awards, for presentation to the family.
"We all really feel that it's an honor and a privilege to do this," Paul Gavin said. "After all these years, I still cry when I hear taps."
Age, weather pose challenges
Age and weather extremes of cold and heat can be their worst enemies. "The old guys, if they lock their knees, they're down," said bugler Richard Mullins, 57, of Berea.
Their duty gets a little tougher if they knew the deceased, another Guard member said.
And "KIAs [killed in action], that's really where it gets to you," said Harold Steinhauser, 76, who supervises the group.
In Lorain County, Clark Bruner, 71, commander of the Amherst Veterans Military Honor Guard, said funerals for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan hit particularly hard.
Marine
veteran Phil Toomey, 65, of Strongsville plays taps, with his notes
following those of another bugler by six seconds for an echo effect.Bruner said the Amherst group started in the early 1950s and is supported by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion. He noted community and local business donations recently provided $17,000 for new uniforms for the 26 members.
"It's good therapy for me, and a heck of an honor," said Bruner, a Vietnam-era vet. "That's why most of the guys are here -- to pay your last respects to your comrades, because at one time we were brothers."
Honors performed at 5 cemeteries
On a typical Memorial Day, the Amherst Guard will perform honors at five cemeteries, Bruner said.
The unit handled 96 veterans' funerals last year. About a third of those were at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Seville, south of Medina.
Mark Polen, who handles program support at the cemetery, said he relies on 37 volunteer honor guard teams from surrounding counties to provide military honors for nearly 2,000 veterans' funerals a year.
The teams serve on a rotating schedule, averaging about eight funerals a day, Polen said.
"We have a relatively small staff here and there is no way we'd be able to accomplish what we do" without the honor guards, he noted. "It's pretty phenomenal. Not too many national cemeteries have this kind of volunteerism."
In comparing the local honor guards to those at Arlington National Cemetery, Polen said the Ohio vets "may not be all that spry, but I'd put them up against any of those folks. You can tell by the looks on their faces and the way they conduct themselves. They care."
Polen has some concern about whether the newest veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan will fill the ranks of future honor guards. "We're going to get to the point where all the older folks are going to be gone," he said.
Finding new recruits already a problem
Jeffrey Lynn, co-organizer of the Madison Community Funeral Team, said finding new recruits is already a problem because of the decreasing number of retired veterans who have the time and ability to participate.
Lynn, 54, did not serve in the military, but his father was a World War II veteran.
About 12 years ago, Lynn was a member of the Sons of the American Legion when he was asked to help out on an honor guard that turned out to be just two guys. One came with a cassette tape player for taps.
"I asked, 'Where is everybody?' They said, 'This is it.' I thought, what a disgrace to that veteran," Lynn recalled.
So he and a few veterans created the Madison Community Funeral Team, which now has 40 members, including a ladies auxiliary, who serve at more than 60 funerals a year in Lake and Ashtabula counties. The old cassette tape-player has long since been replaced by a bugler and bagpiper.
Lynn said some of the most memorable funerals have involved battling the elements.
He recalled one bitter winter funeral when the temperature dipped below 10 degrees. "When we got there I told the preacher, 'Reverend, you've got to make this as quick as possible,' " Lynn said. "We were only out there a few minutes. I never heard anybody say the Lord's Prayer any faster.
"I later asked the preacher about it, and he said, 'My son, that was the CliffsNotes version of the Lord's Prayer.' "
Lynn said he has been to more than 778 funeral but never tires of offering this final salute. "It's just such an honor, and the families really appreciate it," he said.
To some honor guard members, the duty gets personal.
Roger Davis, 65, of Parma, said he joined the Joint Veterans Honor Guard as a tribute to two friends who served with him in Vietnam and were killed in combat.
"They're the real heroes. Those two guys, they gave it all," he said.
"We can't ever forget that," Davis added. "Isn't that kind of important?"
The question didn't need an answer as the honor guard members furled their flags and collected spent brass shells scattered on the grass from the rifle salute.
Old vets just saying goodbye, as veterans do. This day, Memorial Day, any day.
