TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- It takes an especially dedicated and reverent Airman to conduct meticulous flag-folding ceremonies and presentations to veterans’ families. To fulfill those challenging duties the Travis Air Force Base Honor Guard relies on the continuity provided by 349th Air Mobility Wing Reservists.
349th AMW Airmen, who typically join the team for months or up to a few years, work alongside active duty members from the 60th AMW and the 621st Contingency Response Wing who do shorter 90-day rotations with a 45-day overlap.
The team, which usually consists of 28 members, provides honors for approximately 1,300 funerals per year and about 50 color ceremonies per month, said Master Sgt. Derek Westfall, 60th Air Mobility Wing honor guard superintendent.
Westfall said Reservists and active duty members work side by side to provide funeral honors.
That teamwork is important to ensure the honor guardsmen are able to fulfill the requests of their densely populated area they cover.
"The honor guard program here at Travis AFB meets a high demand of funeral honors. Our area of responsibility spans across 45,000 square miles that is comprised of 28 counties, four national cemeteries, two (Department of Veterans Affairs) state run cemeteries, and every private location within our borders,” said Master Sgt. Sofia Ronquillio, 349th AMW honor guard superintendent.
Every team sent out for funeral details has a mixed level of expertise. There is always someone who has hundreds and sometimes thousands of combined training and duty hours of experience, those who are out for the first times with families and individuals with in between experience, explained honor guardsmen Airman 1st Class Russell H. Powell, C-5 crew-chief, 60th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, and Staff Sgt. Robert Langston, a reservist assigned to the 82nd Aerial Port Squadron.
Together they must work cohesively to overcome the challenges they come across. It is an honor guardsman’s duty to “keep a straight face,” said Langston.
“Ronquillio is famous for saying ‘we get no do overs,’” he added.
Langston said, he has experienced 100 degree Fahrenheit days which become even hotter in small spaces, while surrounded by dozens of family members of the deceased. At the opposite end of the spectrum, instead of drenched in sweat, he has been under rain and hailstorm while performing the same duties.
Regardless of circumstance, weather, crowd size, in any challenge, an honor guardsman must keep a blank stare.
Tech. Sgt. Jason Chan, the lead honor guard trainer, who is assigned to the 312th Airlift Squadron, oversees the training of reserve members.
Aside from the professionalism required to be an honor guardsman, Chan said it is necessary to “have a sincere heart for the mission” in order to provide closure for the families, despite how difficult it may be at times.
“Sometimes you see someone that reminds you of your friend, your aunt, someone you know,” said Chan. “We are supposed to look into their eyes but I would cry if I did that. I do a 1,000-yard stare instead.”
“I don’t look at this as being around death all the time, I look at it as always having training tasks to do,” said Chan.
Overall, the 349th AMW members who volunteer their time to answer the call to support the mission here at Travis all come from different backgrounds, and different experiences. But what is shared amongst them is the heart for our country’s fallen comrades, said Ronquillio.
“For many of us, serving in the honor guard program has been the highlight of our careers and has made us better Airmen. Truly an experience that is unmatched," she said.