Saying goodbye to Cpl Anderson

Saturday, 14 July 2007, Ceremonial Guard was asked to perform the funeral ceremony for Cpl Anderson, who died in an IED explosion on 04 July 2007 in Afghanistan. The pallbearers were from Cpl Anderson's home unit, 3PPCLI, and the escort and guard were from CG.

Meanwhile there were 2 other funerals on the 14th with another 3 to happen this week, to bury all 6 of the soldiers that died on that tragic day.

Military funerals are always a very emotional event. The ceremony, is full of tradition that while it can never bring back the dead, is the best way of to say good bye to a comrade in arms.

There are several elements that make up a military funeral. The first is the church service, the coffin draped in the National Flag, with the dead's bayonet, medals, and beret on top, gets marched into the church on the shoulders of member of his unit. Often there will be a bagpiper to pipe in the coffin, the guard will be there as an escort.

After the funeral service, comes the burial at the graveyard. Here the procession, composed of, the escort ( 20 soldiers and 1 Sergeant), the guard (12 soldiers and 1 Sergeant) with rifles reversed, the Funeral Commander, and then the pallbearers. Everyone salutes as the coffin is marched in on the shoulders of 8 of his unit members. During the ceremony, the guard fires 3 volleys, and rests on their arms. A trumpet plays last post, and the reveille, and the bagpipes play a lament. Near the end of the ceremony the coffin gets undressed, the flag folded and then the flag, medals, and beret get presented to the Mother or Widow. After the ceremony, everyone in their turn go to pay their final respects, the military members marching up to the coffin, halting and saluting.




Farewell Cpl Anderson

The End of Drill...

... well of intensive drill anyways. Tomorrow is the last day of intensive drill and then we do our first Guard Mount on Saturday.

Over the past 3 weeks, besides getting the worlds best "farmer's tan", I taught my division of 22 troops a lot about drill and the traditions of the military. It's not easy taking people that speak 2 different languages, I have both French and English speakers in my division, and teaching them all the fine points and details of drill. When doing drill I can be very worried about the smallest things, like where the hands are, is the thumb sticking out, or tucked in, are the feet at the proper angle, and many more small details. We teach them all the moves they need and then we teach them the Guard Mount format, but there is just too much information for them to master in the 3 weeks that we have to do it in. One of the hardest things, is getting people that have thought they knew how to do a particular movement, but they were doing the small things wrong, change the way they were doing things. A good example is standing at attention, it's one of the first things we learn as a soldier, but in order to make it look good we have to make suer everyone does the movement exactly the same. So we ensure that everyone pulls the weapon in as their leg comes up, because if left on their own, some will have the weapon forced in as the leg comes up, some as it comes down, and some in the middle. So it's had to break people of their habits, and introduce the new habits that we want them to have.

So over the 3 weeks, we taught, or re-taught them how to march, halt, stand at attention, stand at ease, stand easy, shoulder arms, order arms, fix bayonets, un-fix bayonets, present arms, change arms, do right and left forms, right and left turns, slow march, and perform double sentry drill.

So tommorrow, they will be doing drill for the first time in their full dress uniform, some of them will be a little suprised to find out how tight it is, and how much it will restrict their movements. And then on Saturday the next phas eof the summer will begin. I'm really hoping that it goes well.

Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense

Day 1 Ceremonial Guard 2007

Well the troops have hit the ground. I'm 1 Section Commander for 3 Platoon, and have 26 troops in my division. Not much going on today, just got the guys into their rooms, and introduced them to the staff. Tomorrow will be more interesting, as we are having the change of command parade for the Commanding Officer and the RSM.

Here's to hoping we have a great summer.

UP THE GUARDS