Free Republic

Marc Garcia is a trumpet player who moonlights as a bugler at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. He plays taps at the end of graveside services. If you have ever been to such a service, you know that the haunting notes of the melody provide an emotional end to the event. Garcia contacted me recently to say that he and his fellow buglers have been replaced by a battery-operated bugle. He wrote in an email: “When I sound live taps, I put all my spirit and soul into all 24 notes that I play, and that’s the same spirit and soul...

Jihadists are being encouraged to strike America in a sickening new way by bombing the funerals of U.S. service members killed in action. A recent post on the Ansar al-Mujahedeen web forum cites 2009's Fort Hood massacre as a truiumph. It urges readers to conceal suicide vests under fake military uniforms to get close to funeral VIPs like military brass and state governors. An unnamed author on the site writes: 'There is no doubt that targeting America in these times will have a significant impact in hastening its withdrawal from the countries it occupies, on top of which is Afghanistan.'

This morning, just five days before the celebration of our nation's independence, I was shocked into wakefulness by a news item on Fox and Friends. It seems that the Houston National Cemetery has now begun banning "God" from military funerals. The director of the Houston VA National Cemetery, Arleen Ocasio, has ordered the burial teams to instruct that religious references, as well as prayer, are no longer to be included as part of the burial services. Requests for messages or prayers can be formally submitted for her approval, but the mention of "God" is not allowed. Ocasio has also ordered...

York, Pa. (AP) - One thing Al Snyder wants to make clear: His boy fought and died for freedom in Iraq, but not for the right of some "wackos" to spew hate at soldiers' funerals under the protection of the Constitution. "It's an insult to myself, my family and the veterans to say this is what our military men and women died for," Snyder says, barely concealing his anger. Yet more than four years after the death of his only son, Matthew, Snyder is in the middle of a Supreme Court case that raises almost precisely that issue. The court...

The VA Secretary For Memorial Affairs, William Tuerk, has not rescinded the memo which outlawed the mentioning of God in the veteran's flag folding ceremony. There was an adjustment made by the VA which vaguely authorizes the traditional language if requested by the veteran or his family at the time of burial. Active duty Military Honor Guards may still be prohibited from using the standard language in the ceremony. "At issue is the "13-fold recital" sometimes read by members of an honor guard as an American flag is folded at a veteran's graveside.At each fold of the flag concepts including...

ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND NEWS RELEASE November 1, 2007 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020 ADF attorneys send letter to VA offering constitutional analysis after flag-folding recitation faces legal threat Unnamed individual filed complaint over religious aspects of flag-folding recitation, a tradition to honor America's fallen soldiers WASHINGTON — The Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter Wednesday to the Department of Veterans Affairs offering constitutional analysis of the tradition of a flag folding recitation banned by the National Cemetery Association. An unnamed individual lodged a complaint over religious aspects of the ceremony. The ceremony honoring fallen American...

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, condemned the National Cemetery Administration’s decision to prohibit the recitation of a common flag-folding ceremony at military burials. The ceremony requires that the American flag be folded 13 times while the significance of each fold is recited. “The National Cemetery Administration’s decision to ban this symbolic and respected tradition is a disservice to anyone who has have ever worn a uniform for this country,” said Congressman Hunter. “The flag folding ceremony serves not only to memorialize the service and sacrifice of those being...

Through thousands of military burials, Memorial Honor Detail volunteers at Riverside National Cemetery have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors of those being laid to rest. The first fold, a narrator tells relatives, represents life, the second a belief in eternal life. The 11th fold celebrates Jewish war veterans and "glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." A single complaint lodged against the words for the 11th fold recently prompted the National Cemetery Administration to ban the entire recital at all 125 national cemeteries....

Christians encouraged to take action on funeral flag recitation ban Allie Martin OneNewsNow.comOctober 29, 2007The founder of the American Family Association (AFA) says it's outrageous that a complaint from one person can put a halt to a long-standing tradition at funerals throughout all 125 national cemeteries. Hear this ReportA complaint about religious content has led to a ban on flag-folding recitations by Veterans Administration employees and volunteers at all national cemeteries. At thousands of military burials, the American flag is folded 13 times and volunteers recite the significance of each fold to survivors. The 11th fold glorifies "the God of...

Complaints about religious content have led to a ban on flag-folding recitations by Veterans Administration employees and volunteers at all national cemeteries. At thousands of military burials, VA volunteers have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of each fold to survivors. The 11th fold glorifies “the God of Abraham,” Isaac and Jacob. The 12th glorifies "God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost." Citing a need for uniformity, the National Cemetery Administration has prohibited unpaid VA volunteers as well as employees from conducting the recital at all 125 national cemeteries. American Legion attorney Rees Lloyd calls...

The reading of the recitation about the folding of the Flag of the United States at vetern cemetaries nationwide? I would post but I dont know how to link. I received an e-mail about this recently and went to the link provided and it is true.

An American Legion commander in California says he and other veterans will defy a newly imposed ban on flag-folding recitations that include references to God. During thousands of military burials, Veterans Administration employees and volunteers have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors. The fourth fold, for example, refers to God's "divine guidance." The 11th fold glorifies "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And the 12th fold glorifies "God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost." Now the National Cemetery Association has made a decision to ban flag-folding recitations by VA...

Through thousands of military burials, Memorial Honor Detail volunteers at Riverside National Cemetery have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors of those being laid to rest. The first fold, a narrator tells relatives, represents life, the second a belief in eternal life. The 11th fold celebrates Jewish war veterans and "glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." A single complaint lodged against the words for the 11th fold recently prompted the National Cemetery Administration to ban the entire recital at all 125 national cemeteries....

News Release Remains of First World War Soldier Identified NR–07.010 - March 2, 2007 OTTAWA – Almost 90 years after his death, Private Herbert Peterson will be laid to rest with his comrades in arms at La Chaudière Military Cemetery (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) during ceremonies in France in April 2007 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. During a night raid on June 8th and 9th, 1917, 16 members of the 49th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, were reported missing and presumed dead on the German front near Vimy Ridge. In October 2003, two sets of human...

Law rushed into place after threats from Kansas churchOLYMPIA – Rushing a new law into place in time for today's threatened protests at military memorial services in Yakima and Spokane, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday signed "the Washington Rest in Peace Act." The law, which a handful of lawmakers opposed due to freedom-of-speech concerns, bans "tumultuous conduct" and other disruptions within 500 feet of funerals. "It's a bill, candidly, that I wish I did not have to sign," Gregoire said Friday, flanked by lawmakers and veterans, including her husband, Vietnam combat veteran Mike Gregoire. At his request, she said,...

SPRINGFIELD -- It's not a threat to sue. Yet. The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a broad inquiry into how Illinois is enforcing a new state law designed to keep picketers affiliated with a radical Kansas church from disrupting military funerals. The ACLU has sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the offices of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and several suburban and Downstate mayors and police chiefs to see how members of Westboro Baptist Church were dealt with and whether their free-speech rights were infringed upon. In Illinois in the last five months, church members have shown up at...

Lt. Michael L. Licalzi's funeral cortege moved through Nassau County, slowly and a hundred cars strong. SNIP At the head of the procession were those who suffered most — friends and family — though riding point out front was a group of strangers who, if they had not suffered personally, had at least decided they would not forget.

Bikers roll to military funerals to oppose anti-gay protests (AP) -- Wearing vests covered in military patches, a band of motorcyclists rolls around the country from one soldier's funeral to another, cheering respectfully to overshadow jeers from church protesters. They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests held by the Rev. Fred Phelps at military funerals. Phelps believes American deaths in Iraq are divine punishment for a country that he says harbors homosexuals. His protesters carry signs thanking God for so-called IEDs -- explosives that are a major killer...

Several people have asked how the Patriot Guard Riders got started. Here’s what we’ve been able to piece together. If anyone can give us more details, it would be greatly appreciated. It all started back in early August of 2005 with the American Legion Riders chapter 136 from Kansas. They were appalled to hear that a fallen hero’s memory was being tarnished by misguided religious zealots who were protesting at funerals. They decided to do something about it. At the ALR 136 August  meeting,  Director : Chuck " Pappy " Barshney appointed members, Terry “Darkhorse” Houck, Cregg “Bronco 6” Hansen, Steve “McDaddy” McDonald,...

BATH, N.Y. - It began with three haunting notes from a teenage girl. A second bugler, about 100 yards down the road, picked up the tune. And then a third. More than 850 buglers, trumpeters and other horn players fanned out Saturday along 41 miles of roads in rural western New York and performed a cascading rendition of taps to highlight the scarcity of buglers at veterans' funerals. The 24-note melody started up at Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira, overlapped from one instrument to the next as it reverberated through a string of small towns from Painted Post to Campbell...