Maple Valley's VFW 5052: More News from the Front

VFW 5052: More News from the Front

By William Stephens

It seems like my desire to unclutter my computer resulted in my deleting the second part of my reporting about our post’s affiliation with Tahoma National Cemetery so, that being said, here, to the best of my recollection, is that article.

Since 1997, the year that the cemetery was opened for burials, VFW Post 5052 has had an honor guard on duty with an all volunteer team. We are still involved with military services for honorably discharged veterans at least one Friday per month, every 5th Thursday and every 3rd Tuesday (rifle team only with the Marine Reserve) so, just guessing, we do an average of 7 services those days and put in about 8 hours each per squad member/day and that has added up to be 19 x 28 x 7 x 6 or approximately 845,338 volunteer hours not including the time volunteering at the Public Information Center by several of our men. There have been about 40,000 military veterans that have had services performed by all honor guards all having been done so as to say a military good bye with honor and compassion.

Each service is allotted 30 minutes each and the time starts when the entourage leaves the assembly point at the Public Information Center. A busy day (most Mondays and Fridays) will be about 12 services with the first being at 9 a.m. and the last at 3 p.m. We normally have 30 minutes for lunch at noon but this is sometimes cut short because of extenuating issues of a service running over. As you can imagine, we are repeating the first service for the next 11 and are doing so with the same amount of honor and pride for each and, believe it or not, we do get pretty tired by 3 p.m. We know, however, that each service is a once in a lifetime experience for the family and friends of the veteran and we will not shortchange any of them.

The members present at the services normally include a rifle team, a commander and a chaplain. Also present are at least 2 members of the active duty military and 1 cemetery employee. Sometimes the family will have a minister or a family member that wishes to say a few words and, at other times, they have one of the above who wishes to say a whole lot of words. Although we make every effort to accommodate these people, we sometimes have to interrupt and cut them short. For some that have witnessed our doing this, please remember that the clock started to tick when you left the P.I.C. and we need to be preparing for another service immediately following this one. The only exceptions to this are after the 11:30 and the 3 o’clock services. Our goal is to be efficient, not rude. People must remember that we are performing a military committal service not a funeral.

It is an honor to have a National Cemetery in our own backyard and we encourage you to come out and attend a service. You, too, will feel a sense of pride for what are doing for our fallen comrades.