Today I attended my Uncle Harold's funeral. It was a really nice service and afterwards some of the family headed to the cemetery in the funeral procession. At the cemetery, we were met by two military men so that they could perform military honors. According to my grandparents, you have to call and request that this be done and you have several options. You can have someone play taps, have a gun salute, fold and present the flag, etc. They decided to just have the flag presented to my grandpa (Harold was his brother). But there was already an American flag folded on his coffin at the church. I was confused by this because I thought that the flag would be folded by the military men at the cemetery. When the ceremony began at the cemetery, the soldiers took the flag off the coffin and ceremoniously unfolded it, then refolded it, then presented it to my grandpa. I'm not sure if this is normal practice (that's not what they show in the movies!), but I got the impression that it was. I guess I just assumed that they would arrive with an unfolded flag and just fold it upon arrival. I guess this looked better and was more formal anyway.
What I learned: You can request what specific form of military honors you have performed at a veteran's funeral; also the ceremony of folding the flag also consists of unfolding it first.
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