LAFAYETTE – This weekend typically would be have been a busy for the American Legion Post 11 Honor Guard, presenting colors and firing rounds in honor of the fallen.
But there will be no Memorial Day Parade kicking off Monday afternoon from Lafayette’s Five Points intersection and heading up Main Street to Columbian Park.
There will be no program at the park’s Memorial Island, given that even with relaxed stay-at-home orders, the expected crowd would have been more than the 100 people would have made social distancing difficult.
And there will be no traditional morning tour with a full presentation at Greater Lafayette’s cemeteries.
Instead, the Post 11 Honor Guard is settling for slowly getting back to presiding graveside during funeral services for local veterans.
Last week, Post 11 started assembling a smaller squad – three with rifles, one with a flag and a bugler to play taps – for its first duty since shutting things down in March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Indiana.
On Friday, that small contingent – in better days, there would be 14 – put on face masks and loaded on the Post 11 bus to cover an early afternoon funeral in Romney, just south of Lafayette.
“I think everyone’s anxious to get back and get out,” Steve McKay, squad commander for the honor guard, said. “It’s good to get back.”
Larger squads will follow soon.
Since March, funeral homes have limited services in various ways, often keeping things to families only. Obituaries are filled with promises for larger celebrations of life as conditions allow.
Post 11 member Jim Vianco coordinates with funeral homes when families ask for the colors and a gun salute during a service or at the cemetery.
He said he wasn’t sure what sort of backlog there is for local veterans who qualified to have the Post 11 Honor Guard standing at attention. The groups does more than 100 services a year. So, for a lost two months, do the math.
“We told funeral directors we’d be more than glad to come back, if families wanted us to,” Vianco said. “I’m just not sure whether that moment’s passed for those families. But we’ll be ready.”
Harry Martin, a retired West Lafayette police detective and a Post 11 Honor Guard member for more than a decade, says he reads the obituaries each morning in the J&C and thinks about which ones were missing out on a salute.
“It’s an obligation for us,” Martin said. “But it’s an honor for us, too. To be there to honor service to the country. To let their families know how much it mattered.”
Martin said he’s been itching to get back to that work, though he said he advocated shutting things down as it became apparent that coronavirus was no joke.
“I’m 81, and I’m not the oldest one,” Martin said. “We’re an older bunch, so we have to be careful. I’m not sure how many of the guys will be comfortable showing up even now. We’ll see. … But it’s a camaraderie thing for us, too. I know I’m missing it.”
McKay said the Post 11 Honor Guard would continue to take its guidance from the Tippecanoe County Health Department to make sure the group’s work is safe.
“It’s a different Memorial Day weekend, that’s for sure,” McKay said.
MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONIES OFF: Dusty Hamacher, Tippecanoe County Veterans Council president, said the council canceled this year’s Memorial Day program at Columbian Park’s Memorial Island in April. That was after Dr. Jeremy Adler, Tippecanoe County health officer, advised groups to cancel or postpone large community events through June. Hamacher said the council was discussing an alternate program for later in the year, though nothing had been confirmed.
LAFAYETTE FIRE DEPARTMENT CEREMONY: The Lafayette Fire Department has placed crosses outside Fire Station No. 5, 750 N. Creasy Lane, to honor those who have died. But firefighters postponed their annual ceremony, originally scheduled for Monday. The city said the ceremony would be rescheduled for later in the year. The fire department invited people to visit the field of memorials, though the fire station would remain closed to visitors.
Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.
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Coronavirus: American Legion Honor Guard slowly returns to again honor Lafayette's fallen veterans - Journal & Courier
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