The U.S. Postal Service has got nothing on Cliff Harris and the boys from the Veterans of Foreign Wars District 11 honor guard.
Rain or shine, searing heat or limb-numbing cold, the members of the honor guard will pile into their cars and trucks and muster to pay final respects at the funeral of any honorably discharged veteran whose family requests a military presence.
Distance doesn't matter. The guard — a lot of its members belong to VFW Post 9910 in Clemmons — have (and will) travel to any number of area counties, including Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Rowan, Surry and Stokes.
The boys will even find ways to perform funeral duties when their roster falls short of 14, the optimum number to have everything done just so. If there's a need, they find a way.
Only one thing stands a chance of keeping the honor guard members from the duty they hold sacred: time.
"We're getting old," Harris said.
Hard to stand alone
Nearly a year ago, in February, Harris and more than a dozen of his fellow guard members lined up to pay tribute to one of their own, a man named Joe King.
Like all of them, King was active in the VFW and felt drawn to the honor guard in particular. He had been serving in that capacity for most of the 25 years the guard has been around. Harris estimated that King had been to more than 2,000 funerals.
When King — an Army veteran of World War II — passed away, the honor guard found it impossible to replace his dedication. "Joe seldom missed a funeral," Harris said.
Therein lay the problem. The older (retired) guys who served in World War II are dying off.
In North Carolina, perhaps 50,000 of them are still with us out of the 362,500 who served. According to actuaries at the Department of Veterans Affairs, about 8,000 die annually.
And when they go, organizations such as the VFW that counted on large numbers of vets to fill their ranks and give back find it increasingly difficult to keep going.
"A lot of us who go a lot now were in Korea or Vietnam," Harris said. "Our average age, if I had to guess, is 71 or 72. It is getting harder to stand on our own."
Sense of duty
The VFW honor guard roster now lists 24 names. Of those, Harris said, 14 are considered active.
And that just so happens to be the magic number for funeral detail — a rifle squad with seven riflemen, a bugler and a commander, three to fold the flag and present it, and an overall commander and chaplain to be with the family.
"We've gotten by with as few as nine," Harris said. "Any less, it starts to look bad."
This year, the honor guard has presided over 151 funerals and 27 color guard missions at schools, churches and parades.
Though they've done all without hesitation or complaint, Harris and the other members of the honor guard wouldn't mind some help. Any vet of foreign military service who has served in a war zone is eligible and welcome.
Guard members know full well that younger vets, those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are busy with family and careers. "The Desert Storm guys are all gainfully employed," Harris said.
Still, there will come a time when some may find the time and perhaps a desire to serve something bigger once again.
"Guys still feel a duty of honor to their country and want to be of service to grieving families," he said.
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