WEBVTT

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mhm . Mhm .

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The Virginia Army National Guard

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military funeral honors program began

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in 2000 and seven . And what we do is

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provide final military rights for any

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veteran that has served in the army and

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that includes active duty National

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Guard and Reserves and what we provide

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is everything from a to soldier detail

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to a service member that maybe Helen

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did one contract all the way up to a

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full honors detail for someone that has

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retired . There are currently three

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levels of training in the military

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funeral honors program . Level one is

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the foundations and how to do the

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services . Level two is a train . The

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trainer , you become an instructor at

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the end of the course . Level three is

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used as a recertification tool for

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soldiers with an expired level two .

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The level one course we're teaching

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here is seven days long . Yeah .

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Yeah lot of three . Yeah . Sergeant

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Connolly and I have been doing this

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together for roughly 15 years now , 15

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combined 15 combined and we've trained

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a lot of soldiers throughout those 15

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years and watch them move on to bigger

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and better things within the military

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funeral honors program And that's what

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it's all about . Is getting these

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soldiers where they know how to go out

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and honor veterans the correct way

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modifiable . What look

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most soldiers that come through this

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course have never done anything

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military funeral honors related in

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their career . So it's very important

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for us as instructors to start them

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with a good foundation and that all

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begins with drone ceremony because we

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do not do your typical drill and

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ceremony movements that you would if

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you were saying on active duty or

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regular army movements , we have to

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change them to flow with what we do in

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the honor guard . And that's the same

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thing with the M14 rifles that we used .

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The drill and ceremonies do with them

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are completely different than what

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they've learned . So it's really kind

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of hard to break those habits and then

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build a new foundation up with those

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soldiers . And that's where we get our

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starting point is right there . After

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that we move into flag folds . They

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learn how to do to sort of details and

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three soldier details with how to hold

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the flag in different methods to learn

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how to do casket and services and

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cremations which required unfold . Meet

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you somehow to do that as well . And

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then once they're done with that , that

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this all builds up and by the end of

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the course we have shown them how to do

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the casket carry as well as the firing

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party , which we do those honors for

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retirees and we put all this together .

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Everything we do builds on something

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else . So at the end of the course ,

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every soldier should know every single

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position on the casket on the flag , on

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the rifles and everything so we can put

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it all together for one big military

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funeral honors , seek , we also focus

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during the course uh major emphasis on

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physical training and uniform standards .

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It's really important that not only do

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we have to be able to do the part to

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look the part as well . We are still

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honoring families and we want to make

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sure representing the army the best way

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possible . The most challenging

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part without a doubt is going to be she

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trained them how to do a standing man

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of arms with drilling ceremony with an

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M-14 rifle . They've never touched this

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rifle before in their military career

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more often than not . And anything they

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learned in boot camp is leaps and

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bounds away from what we train the

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drill and ceremony is also tough . I

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touched on that earlier of how building

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that foundation . It's exact same with

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what's on college just said the drill

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and ceremony is so different that you

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have to almost have them forget

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everything they learned and start fresh

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and that's , that foundation builds on

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everything else that we do . So I'm

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going to say that the drilling ceremony

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is probably the toughest , toughest

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challenge . We have . One of the things

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we really like to emphasize in the

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military funeral honors program is how

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important this is . We try to teach the

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soldiers that this is a way for them to

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be a part of something bigger than

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themselves . We're not here for us . We

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are here for those families and that

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veterans . Um , a lot of people will

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come up to us , other service members

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of different branches and ask us on

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services why we're not wearing our name

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tapes . And the reason we don't wear

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our name tapes is because we're there

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for the families . This is one of the

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most selfless things you can do and it

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has such a sense of pride , once the

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soldiers understand that they're there

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to honor those families and not

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themselves and that is one of the

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greatest feelings about me and the

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instructor for me . That's what I look

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forward to the most . Um I absolutely

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love instructing mainly on the fact

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that I get to see the soldiers actually

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doing those services with me , I get to

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train the soldier and build them back

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up and I get to see them engaged with

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the family and actually be the hand of

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the army to extend the honor back to

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the veterans family after they passed

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away as many hours as we put into

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training . The one thing that we can't

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train them for is when they get out

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there in front of a family and in front

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of a preacher and that's

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tough . That's one thing we can't show

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them because once you get out there , I

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know myself , I've conducted a lot of

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funerals over the years and as soon as

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I see that procession rolling in , even

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to this day , I still get that night in

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my stomach because it's such an

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emotional experience for the family as

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well as us . It's a real privilege to

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be able to represent the army and

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actually get back to the families and

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the veterans after they pass away . I

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mean , this is like the worst day of

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the family's life and we get to be the

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face of the army to give that on our

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backs . Yeah ,

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it definitely takes a high level of

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commitment , um , not just from the

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individual , but as a team and that

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doesn't stop here at this course . Once

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this courses over , each person in the

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course will join a team in the state

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and when they do , the teams have to

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work together , there's no way that one

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individual can do this by themselves to .

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So teamwork , team cohesion and

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commitment are very , very important

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parts of this program . On the final

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day of the class , the soldiers do

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their final test out and that is where

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we have put everything together that

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they've learned throughout the week and

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we really treated as they have to act

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as if they are at a funeral . There's

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no pausing . We do not make corrections

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to what they're doing . They have to

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show us that they can go out there

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regardless of what situation they may

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be in because you can never tell what's

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gonna happen when you're out there with

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the family and soldiers have to react

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to it . So we put them through

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different scenarios to make sure that

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we've trained them good enough to where

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they can get through the service , no

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matter what soldiers are gonna make

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mistakes , The goal is to make sure the

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family never realizes we've made a

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mistake . You have to pretend like

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you're right and everybody else in the

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world is wrong and carry on with the

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mission and still provide honors for

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that family . And that's the most

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important thing and we don't know ,

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we've , we've said this before for us

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and this is something that I know that

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we push out to those soldiers

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constantly and as well as our area

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coordinators , we spoke of team

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cohesion , the teams have to push out

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how important this is . This job is

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very selfless . It's very important to

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the families and this is the last thing

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the family is gonna see and remember

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that their loved ones served is what we

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do performing out there . It can be

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100° outside , it could be 32°

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outside your back is gonna be hurting .

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It's gonna take a lot of commitment to

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stand there and do the right thing to

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provide the proper honors for all these

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veterans . It takes a very special

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soldier to be able to stick with it and

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do all this stuff overall . This is of

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course that soldiers are going to carry

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with them forever . It's the foundation

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of everything we do and we need to

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stress how important it really is to

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provide funerals funeral honors for

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these veterans who have given up a lot

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for the army into the country already .

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We tried to really and still in these

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soldiers that honoring our veterans is

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the most important thing we can do on

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this side of the of the ocean . It's

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that important .

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Yeah .

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Yeah . Right .

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Yes .

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Yeah .