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    VFW Post 8495 Honor Guard
Our honor guard participates in civic activities in the town of Perinton
and Monroe County and includes parades, dedications, and memorials. 
We offer funeral services  for American military veterans including
sounding of Taps, rifle firing squad and, flag presentations when
requested through the funeral director.

changes in veterans saluting
history of taps
rifle firing at funerals


For those post members interested in joining the Honor Guard, see any Honor
Guard Member and fill out an application and turn it over  by dropping it in the
Posts Honor Guard mail slot 

Honor Guard :  

P. Cammilleri - President	J. Gropp
D. Crawford - Captain	W. Kuhn
D. Cronkite	R. Olmo Vasquez
G. Droney	P. Pierce
J. Durham	F. Pittenaro - Chaplain
M. Fedele	R. Polle
R. Fox	R. Sargent
R. Gill	J. Schenkel
K. Gippe	H. M. Smith
R. Gough	P. Thurley
	V. Whalberg

Changes in Flag Saluting

In the Sep-Nov 2008 issue of Army Echoes there is an article which states that
Retired Military as well as veterans may render the hand salute regardless
whether they are in uniform or not.

The article is as follows:

"Retired Soldiers are Still Proud! Still Serving! Congress has put Still Saluting into l
aw for Retired Soldiers and other veterans. The 2008 National Defense Authorization
Act (Public Law 110-181) changed Sect. 9, Title 4, U.S. Code, which covers "Conduct
during hoisting, lowering or passing the flag." Following is that section of the U.S.
Code, as reworded by the law change. Please share this information with veterans
 and other retired military who don't get ECHOES.

"During the ceremony of hoisting or lowering the flag or when the flag is passing in a
parade or in review, all persons present in uniform should render the military salute.
 Members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may
render the military salute. All other persons present should face the flag and stand at
attention with their right hand over the heart, or if applicable, remove their headdress
with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart.
Citizens of other countries present should stand at attention. All such conduct toward
the flag in a moving column should be rendered at the moment the flag passes."

I think this is worthy of the widest dissemination.
Frank Balik

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History of Taps:
The 24 note bugle call known as "Taps" is thought to be a revision of a French Bugle
signal called "Tattoo"., that notified soldiers to cease an evening's drinking and return
to their barracks of garrisons.  It was sounded one hour before the bugle call that brought
the military day to an end and by ordering the extinguishing of fires and lights.  The last
five measures of the tattoo resemble the modern day "Taps".
The word "taps" is an alteration of the obsolete word "taptoo" derived from the Dutch
 "taptoe" .  Taptoe was the  command -- "Tap toe" -- to shut ("toe to") the "tap" of a keg.

The revision that gave us present-day taps was made during America's Civil War by
Union General Danial Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison
Landing , Va., near Richmond.  Up to that time. the U.S. Army's infantry call to end the
day was the French final call, "L'Extinction des feux".  Gen. Butterfield decided the
"lights out" music was too formal to signal the day's end.  One day in July 1862. he
recalled the tattoo music and hummed a version of it to an aide, who wrote it down in
music.  Butterfield then asked the brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton, to play the notes
 and after listening, lengthened and shortened them while keeping his original melody

He ordered Norton to play the new call at the end of each day thereafter, instead of the
regulation call. The music was heard and appreciated by other brigades, who asked for
copies and adopted this bugle call.  It was even adopted by Confederate buglers.  This
music was made the official Army bugle call after the war. but not given he name "taps"
until 1874.

The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also been in Virginia soon after
Butterfield composed it.  Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it
payed for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action.  Not wanting to reveal the battery's
position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional
three rifle volleys fired over the grave.  Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate
 Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed.  Army infantry regulations
by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies.  Taps now is played
by the military at burial and memorial services and is still used to signal "lights out" at days end.

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Rifle Firing at Funerals

The practice of firing three volleys over the grave originated in the old custom of halting the fighting
to remove the dead from the battlefield.  Once each Army had cleared their dead, it would fire three
volleys to indicate that the dead had been cared for and that they were ready to fight again.  The
fact that the firing party consists of seven riflemen, firing these volleys does not constitute a 21 gun
salute. It is the three volleys, not the number of rifles.  Three volleys fired over the casket have
become a tradition to mean that the dead have been cared for.  It has evolved into a military salute
for the deceased serving of country.  Firing the three volleys is one of the highest honors to give a
deceased military veteran. Our nations highest honor is a flag draped over the casket, folded
and presented.  Tradition is to place three spent shell casings inside the folded flag to prove now
and forever  that the deceased and his flag have had proper military honors.  Nothing else is to be
placed in the flag.

Honor Guard needs new members:
Members of the Post who would like to participate in the activities of the Post's Honor Guard, please
give your name and phone number along with the days you would be available to participate in our
activities in the Honor Guard mail slot at the post
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                         |Freedom Hill and Military Service Recognition Bricks|  |Freedom Hill Post Exchange|
                      |Post News and Upcoming Events| |Ladies Auxiliary| |Post Officers| | Honor Guard|
                                |Past Commanders| |Bingo Page| |VFW 8495 Home Page|