New Honor Guard members trained to honor fallen comrades

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Emerald Ralston
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Members of Malmstrom's Honor Guard trained 18 new members on how to properly conduct a full honors funeral and other Honor Guard duties during a week-long training in the lower gym of the Sports and Fitness Center, Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. 

The training consisted of physical training sessions and daily uniform inspections, on top of learning techniques and movements for nearly every Honor Guard ceremony. 

"This kind of training is important and it's great to have everyone together and get everyone on the same page," said Senior Airman Elijah Leonard, 120th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and assistant trainer for the Honor Guard. "Active duty funerals don't happen often, so when we can get together like this to practice it's great. We can learn from each other and make sure we're all doing it the right way." 

Along with continuity, some of the volunteers had more specific reasons for participating in the Honor Guard. 

"The main reason I volunteered for this is because it's a good opportunity to serve those who served before me," said Airman 1st Class Aurie Pennington, 341st Civil Engineer Squadron. "It's a chance to do something new and something good." 

The challenges of the week-long training event were what stuck out most to other volunteers. 

"You definitely have to come prepared for this type of training," said Airman 1st Class Sophia Bullock, 341st Medical Operations Squadron. "You have to be mentally and physically prepared. But we have some great trainers and its worth it because the whole thing is a lot of fun and the best part is at the end of the day you know you'll be doing something for someone's family." 

The Honor Guard assembled this training week due to a large influx of new members following period of low manning as a result of deployments, people moving and expired contracts, said Airman 1st Class Dillon White, 341st Missile Wing and assistant trainer for the week. While every new recruit must go through a five day basic course, this was the first time Malmstrom's Honor Guard trained so many people at one time. 

"We got a huge amount of support from leadership to do this," Airman White said. "The fitness center was also very generous to let us use their lower gym for the entire week. It's a big challenge to train so many new recruits, but everything has been going very well." 

Airman White also pointed out that being in the Honor Guard is not about recognition, which is something he and the other trainers instilled in the new members. 

"As we train them on the funeral ceremony, they have to realize this isn't about them," he said. "We don't wear our name tags on our ceremonial uniforms for a reason - we're faceless. We're here to represent the Air Force and our fellow service members from the past, present and future. This is about the family members who lost a loved one." 

We've also worked very hard to instill a team attitude," Airman White said. "We stress PT, as being in top physical condition is a must for Honor Guard. We've been presenting a lot of physical and mental challenges and pushing the recruits to their limits. I relate it to basic training, without the yelling and 341s. At the end of the day, when they're sore, tired and mentally exhausted, you can tell they feel good about it from the smiles on their faces. Our new recruits already volunteered to serve their country by joining the Air Force, now they are volunteering to serve their fellow Airmen by being part of this team." 

The week of training culminated in a graduation ceremony at the Medal of Honor Park where the recruits got a chance to show off what they learned in front of base leadership by performing a mock active duty funeral. 

"We were fortunate that we had enough people trained that we could perform a full military funeral honors for the audience," said Master Sgt. Jeffrey Parker, Honor Guard NCOIC. "That served two purposes -first to show the commanders and supervisors the new skills their Airmen acquired, and second to educate those who never attended a military funeral, the degree of dedication, respect and tradition we honor our comrades with at their final resting place." 

Along with the demonstration to leadership, the graduation was gratifying for the trainers and newest members of Malmstrom's Honor Guard, he said. 

"The graduation went very well," Sergeant Parker said. "The new recruits worked so hard to perfect all the assignments they were given and the trainers were all impressed with the high degree of dedication the recruits showed and the speed with which they picked up new skills."