On Day 13 of Eglin’s Honor Guard training class, trainees practiced a standard seven-person funeral process when a shark fin appeared.
An instructor spotted the fin when a trainee flared out a thumb during a firing party movement. The thumb up and pointed outward, instead of aligned along the forefinger is known as a shark fin by Honor Guard members.
The sighting visibly agitated the instructors, because, according to them, simple mistakes shouldn’t appear as often in the middle of Week 3 with seven days left in the course. Class 25B’s trainees passed this firing party evaluation at the end of Week 1. The firing party sequence began again, and the fin appeared again, and again.
This continued mistake, along with others, focused all the instructors’ attention on the firing party, who made up four of the seven roles in the funeral sequence. The ceremony started over with two Airmen raising the American flag above the casket while keeping it flat and pulled tight at eye level. This opening section of the funeral sequence is known as tabletop.
After the flag went up, the firing party order began with more errors and instructors yelled to begin that portion again. The errors continued prompting numerous restarts.
“If you hope to be ceremonial guardsmen, you have to get this right,” said Senior Airman Samuel Smith, Class 25B lead instructor, to the trainees.
The flag-holders, Senior Airman Jhade Bell, 33rd Fighter Wing, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Ranalli, 16th Electronic Warfare Squadron, kept the flag at eye level, above the casket through each restart, Taps and the firing party’s three-round rifle volley. The sequence typically takes approximately a minute and 20 seconds to complete. Trainees learn that at no time during this military honors sequence should the flag touch the casket.
With the restarts, the sequence extended more than five minutes. Sweat beaded and dripped down Bell and Ranalli’s faces. Their arms wobbled, but the flag didn’t move. Both Airmen’s faces showed signs of the mental struggle to control the physical, so the flag remained still. The flag never dipped, and the sequence finally finished.
“I just kept saying to myself, I cannot let this flag drop,” said Bell, recalling the experience later. “I had to push past all of the physical pain and tap into another level of discipline deep inside.”
Instructors praised Bell and Ranalli for their effort and bearing and shared their frustration with Class 25B. A few trainees had to retake their firing party procedure evaluations again due to the mistakes.
“If one person makes a mistake, the entire team feels it,” said Master Sgt. Robert Joyce, Eglin Honor Guard’s superintendent. “This is the time and place for mistakes. You can make 1,000 mistakes in this training room, so you don’t make one at a ceremony.”
To highlight Bell and Ranalli efforts during the repeated firing party sequence, the rest of Class 25B performed that table-top exercise. Groups of two held the flag at eye-level, while instructors ensured they maintained bearing and flag control as arms shook and flags dipped toward the floor. Instructors loudly encouraged the trainees to find the will to control their bodies.
“This is painful. It hurts. We know it hurts,” said Smith. “It is nothing compared to the pain that family feels sitting just a few feet from where you’re holding that flag.”
Thinking about Day 13, a few weeks after, Smith said he thought he was failing Class 25B as a trainer. The regression on that day was disheartening and he said he could not understand where he’d gone wrong.
Many, but not all the trainees fought through and kept the flag up. The struggling class was finally released for a much-needed break.
“We all get overwhelmed and frustrated,” said Senior Airman Ryne Montgomery, a Class 25B trainer. “We try to let the trainees cool off and work out issues as a team. A bad day is a perfect opportunity to come together, bond and talk about what went wrong, how to fix it, learn from it and ultimately improve.”
Montgomery added real improvement happens once the team takes accountability for the mistakes.
“The instructors can continue to call out those mistakes, but direct feedback from teammates sometimes gives an Airman the motivation to work harder,” said Montgomery, who volunteered for a second Honor Guard tour and plans to apply for the Air Force Honor Guard.
In the aftermath, the trainees sat in silence. Joyce sat down with them and read thank you cards and appreciation letters describing how Eglin’s Honor Guard had a positive impact on families at their lowest point.
“They do not see you. They see their loved ones in you,” said Joyce. “You will represent something so much larger than yourself. That is why we make this so difficult and push you so hard. So that when the time comes, you can be perfect and the epitome of professionalism.”
The instructors and trainees believed Day 13 changed the class and improved them all for it. After the wave of emotion subsided from the trainees, they were able to finally see how each role within the team affects the others and how a simple mistake can domino everyone else in the detail.
“Day 13, we reached the mountaintop,” Smith said. “It was as emotional and stressful as the training was ever going to be and they came through it. There best day of training was the day after Day 13.”
Week 4 is the culmination of all the training. The Airmen begin training for graduation, which incorporates everything they’ve learned into an active-duty full honors funeral. The team also gets their new uniforms.