Guard serves at over 11,000 funerals
Ceremony includes flag presentation, the playing of Taps
Among the more than 11,100 military funeral honors for families of veterans and troops the New York Army and Air National Guard performed this year was that of Lewis Smith. Smith was a soldier who served in the Army from 1958 to 1960 and who was buried at Gerald B. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery on Dec. 20.
Honors were also provided on Dec. 2 for Army Pfc. John Martin, a soldier who fought and died in Korea in December 1950 who was also interred in the cemetery in Schuylerville next to his parents.
The New York Army National Guard runs a centralized military funeral honors program with eight area offices, with soldiers serving the Albany to Syracuse region and areas north conducted 1,532 funerals.
The 109th Airlift Wing at Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia will cover 400 military funerals by the end of the year.
According to the National Guard, since 2000, federal law mandates that any military veteran who did not receive a dishonorable discharge from the armed forces is eligible for military honors at his or her funeral. The ceremony must include the folding and presenting of the flag of the United States to the veteran’s survivors and the playing of Taps.
The New York Army National Guard provides services for Army vets while the New York Air National Guard handles Air Force members.
New York was home to 440,729 veterans over age 65 in 2015, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs. That number is expected to decline to 356,246 in 2020 as veterans who served in World War II decline from 51,000 to 15,000.