{"id":225305,"date":"2016-04-13T04:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T18:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=225305"},"modified":"2016-04-13T04:00:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T18:00:40","slug":"225305","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/225305\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint Region Marianas honors Guam veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SANTA RITA, Guam<\/strong>\u2014No matter what clime or place, the playing of \u201cTaps\u201d at military funeral honors stirs emotions of honor, tradition, sadness and loss. Joint Region Marianas (JRM) Sailors and airmen do more to support veterans and their families of Guam by performing Funeral Honor Details for service members and retirees who are interred on island.\u00a0 The JRM funeral honors team recently honored the family of Petty Officer 2nd Class William Sablan Cruz, for a funeral held at the Guam Veteran\u2019s Cemetery, April 1.<\/p>\n<p>Typically, there\u2019s an average of three to four services per month, but according to Master at Arms 2nd Class Kevin Madel, leading petty officer of the JRM funeral honors detail, there might be as many as 10 per month.\u00a0 For him the number of ceremonies and hours devoted to performing doesn\u2019t even compare to the honor provided to the veteran and his or her family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a pride factor in providing this honor,\u201d said Madel, who has performed in the detail for two years and two months.\u00a0 \u201cPresenting the flag to a widow or family member can be very difficult emotionally. Mostly, it\u2019s just rewarding to be able to render these final honors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team supported nine funerals so far in 2016, and 44 in 2015 (21 retiree and 23 non-retired funerals) amounting to 132 hours of community service, not including rehearsals.\u00a0 The team also supported a retiree funeral amidst austere conditions in Saipan soon after Typhoon Soudelor devastated the island in early August 2015. Funerals for retirees are more involved and require more team members.\u00a0 The JRM team provides a rifle detail, pallbearers, flag service and \u201cTaps.\u201d According to Madel, it requires about 90 minutes of rehearsal prior to the funeral, but the funeral itself varies in length. Madel explained that the decision to join the team was initially to provide some community service, but then he \u201cgot engulfed in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Funeral Honors Detail team is looking for more volunteers to serve the community, but for us it isn\u2019t just about serving the community,\u201d said Chief Navy Career Counselor (SW\/AW) Michael Tate, assigned to headquarters, U.S. Naval Base Guam, and detail organizer. \u201cThis prestigious opportunity also represents your service branch.\u00a0 We would like to get all military branches involved in becoming volunteers and members of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers for the JRM Funeral Honors Detail can contact NCC Michael J. Tate, michael.tate@fe.navy.mil or call (671) 339-2017 (work) or (671) 483-3773 (cell).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SANTA RITA, Guam\u2014No matter what clime or place, the playing of \u201cTaps\u201d at military funeral&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[10876,497,200,2661],"class_list":["post-225305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pacific","tag-guam-veteran","tag-joint-region-marianas","tag-military","tag-naval-base-guam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}