There were firefighters that came before you, and hopefully there will be firefighters who follow you. So it means all the more that we as volunteer firefighters honor our deceased predecessors so that the tradition continues after we are dead and gone.
The most visible ways the deceased are honored are fire service funeral honors, flag and metal grave markers, and physical memorials.
Grave markers represent that even though the volunteer firefighter's service, along with their
life, have ended neither are forgotten. Marking firefighters' graves with flags and metal florian crosses is a tradition which is done not just for the deceased firefighter but also for the family they left behind. It is for the next of kin who visits the cemetery and sees a new set of flags upon their loved one's grave long after their death.
How often your fire department or company replaces the grave flags is dependent upon your location, manpower and resources. As the chair of the memorial committee for my fire company, the grave flags are replaced once a year a week or two before memorial day. The grave flags are replaced once a year before memorial day verses more often because the winter season in Northern New Jersey would ruin any new grave flags placed say around Veterans day in November.
Most fire departments in one form or another have a memorial either at their station or somewhere else in their town dedicated to their deceased firefighters.
A memorial doesn't need to be fancy, and it doesn't even need to have flag poles; even though many do. Also you don't need to break the bank designing and building layers of pavers and walls to go along with an expensive cast metal statue. The memorial just needs to be clean and maintained for the public and relatives of the deceased to see.
A fire service funeral and honors is the utmost display of respect for a deceased firefighter's service. In this raw time for the family when they are still trying to adjust to a reality without their loved one; seeing rows of firefighters standing at attention and saluting gives them some solace that even though their loved one is gone their life meant something.
It is because of this solace for the family why you as a volunteer firefighter should attend the funeral services for all members of your department or company regardless of if your knew them or even liked them. I've attended the viewings and wakes of life members from my fire company who I didn't really even know because it is the right and compassionate thing to do, and eventually it'll be you in the casket instead.
See you at the big one.
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