November 7, 2022 at 11:53 a.m.
No greater honor: Members of the Northwoods Honor Guard salute the fallen
No greater honor: Members of the Northwoods Honor Guard salute the fallen
In this part of northern Wisconsin, the 25-person Northwoods Honor Guard ensures that all local veterans are laid to rest with the proper respect.
The members, who represent five different veterans organizations in the community, take turns rendering military honors at the funerals of fellow veterans.
Having a local group on hand means active duty officers don't have to travel to Northern Wisconsin for funerals, according to Northwoods Honor Guard members Robert Smith and Bob Dionne.
"If a veteran passes away and the family, through the funeral home, requests military honors, what happened before we were formed, many times, is that they would have active duty soldiers (travel to the funerals)," Dionne said. "We do the 21-gun salute, 'Taps', the flag ceremony, we do the whole thing. It's kind of veterans from our community helping to give military rites to veterans being buried in our community. It's an honor for us to serve that role."
"Even as old as we are, and what we have done throughout our careers, you still (always) get chills when you hear 'Taps,'" Smith added. "We want to do it. We want this younger generation to be exposed to patriotic ceremonies and funerals."
In addition to providing military rites at funerals, the Northwoods Honor Guard also serves as a ceremonial color guard at community events.
"We really have a twofold mission," Dionne explained. "The first is to provide military honors at veteran burials. That's our primarily function, but now our new function has really grown and that is the ceremonial color guards" at events like the Hodag Country Festival and the Brush Run.
According to Dionne and Smith, the group, which includes members ranging in age from 20 to 80, is growing.
"In the last couple of months we've probably added 10 vets," Dionne said, noting that any veteran interested in participating can join.
"They don't even have to be a member of one of the five (veterans) organizations in town," Dionne noted. "If they're a veteran and they don't want to join the DAV or the VFW or any of those, they can still be a member of our honor guard."
"Once they put that uniform back on, they get that feeling of pride like when they were on active duty," Dionne said of the group's new members. "There's no greater honor than to do that at a funeral."
"Some of these guys haven't marched in 20 years but you do one dry run, one practice run, and they're right back in shape," Smith added. "And for them to go out there and do that at 80 years old."
"It brings something to the surface from deep inside when you put that uniform back on again," Dionne said.
"It makes you feel like you just started all over again," Smith finished.
With more members comes more flexibility. According to Smith and Dionne, the minimum number of members needed at a funeral is nine, as seven members are needed to fire three times to complete the 21-gun salute, plus a bugler and a caller/commander to lead the procession. And sometimes the group has to attend more than one funeral or event per day. However, thanks to community donations, the group now has a new form of transportation, a vinyl-wrapped van.
"It will help so that we don't have to take four or five vehicles (to a funeral)," Smith said.
The men said the new Northwoods National Cemetery in Cassian, which opened for interments in the spring of 2020, is the location for many of the funerals the group is asked to attend, but they will travel to any cemetery in the Northwoods and occasionally to private residences, if a family is gathering to bid farewell to someone who served in the Armed Forces.
Requests for the Northwoods Honor Guard can also be made through the Oneida County Veterans Service Office.
Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].
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