American Legion Post #634, St Joseph, IL 61873

10/21/2026

10/21/2026

🇺🇸 TEACHING TUESDAY: Who is eligible for military funeral honors?

Every veteran’s family deserves to understand the honors their loved one may be eligible for.

Today’s graphic explains eligibility for retired service members, those who die while serving, and other eligible veterans. Military funeral honors are provided at no cost to the family, and families can ask their funeral director to help arrange them.

Behind every folded flag is a life of service—and a family who will treasure that final tribute.

Operation Honor Guard helps equip volunteer honor guards with the uniforms and equipment they need to carry on this sacred responsibility… along with recruitment and education.

Share this post to help a veteran’s family know what to ask for. ❤️🤍💙

Stand Tall. Honor All.

10/18/2026

This week’s Freedom Friday is all about the meaning behind the 13 folds of the American flag. 🇺🇸

During a military funeral or ceremonial flag presentation, each fold carries a traditional symbolic meaning — representing life, honor, sacrifice, faith, family, service, and our nation’s enduring trust in God and freedom.

For many families, the folding of the flag is one of the most emotional and memorable moments of a veteran’s final tribute. It is more than tradition.... it is an expression of respect, gratitude, and remembrance for a life of service.

Stand Tall. Honor All.

10/18/2026

🇺🇸 THE MEANING OF TAPS 🇺🇸

24 notes. But to a grieving military family, they mean so much more.

For generations, the haunting melody of Taps has echoed across military cemeteries, honoring the men and women who answered their nation’s call.

When those first notes begin, time seems to stand still. We all feel the goosebumps.

For a family saying their final goodbye, Taps is more than a military tradition. It’s a nation’s final thank-you. A tribute to sacrifice. A reminder that their loved one’s service will never be forgotten.

But these sacred traditions don’t happen on their own.

Across America, aging volunteer honor guard members continue to stand tall, often in their 70s and 80s, ensuring our veterans receive the dignity and respect they earned.

Who will carry on this tradition when they can no longer stand?

That’s why Operation Honor Guard exists.

We are committed to supporting, equipping, and preserving volunteer honor guards across the nation so that future generations of veterans receive the final honors they deserve.

Because every veteran’s story deserves a dignified ending.

And every family deserves to hear those 24 notes. 🇺🇸

Operation Honor Guard
Stand Tall. Honor All.

🔗 www.operationhonorguard.us

10/14/2026

Teaching Tuesday 🇺🇸

Today we’re highlighting the Three-Volley Salute — one of the most solemn and meaningful traditions in a military funeral.
The tradition dates back to old battlefield customs, when fighting would pause so the dead and wounded could be recovered. Three r***e volleys signaled that the fallen had been cared for and the battle could resume.

Today, the Three-Volley Salute serves as a final tribute to a veteran’s service, sacrifice, and life. It is a powerful act of respect for the fallen and a meaningful moment for the families left behind.
It is also often confused with a 21-gun salute, but the two are not the same.

The Three-Volley Salute is the ceremony most commonly performed by a funeral Honor Guard for veterans.
At Operation Honor Guard, we believe these traditions matter — because every veteran deserves to be honored with dignity.

Stand Tall. Honor All.

10/06/2026

🇺🇸 TEACHING TUESDAY: What do “military funeral honors” actually mean?

Many Americans picture a full Honor Guard, r***e volley, color guard and multiple veterans standing graveside when they think of a military funeral.

But that isn’t always what a family receives.

For an eligible veteran, the government-provided military funeral detail generally includes at least two uniformed service members, the folding and presentation of the American flag, and the sounding of Taps.

The fuller ceremony many families recognize often depends on volunteer veteran Honor Guard members who step in to provide additional traditions, including r***e volleys, color guards, pallbearers and a larger ceremonial presence.

It's exactly why Operation Honor Guard exists.

Across the country, many of these volunteer Honor Guard members are getting older. Many purchase their own uniforms, equipment and fuel, and they continue showing up in the heat, cold, rain and snow because they believe one thing:

No veteran should take their final journey without the honor they earned.

Operation Honor Guard is working to equip these teams, recruit the next generation of volunteers and preserve these traditions for the families who will need them tomorrow.

This isn’t about making a funeral bigger.

It’s about making sure a veteran’s final salute never becomes a tradition America simply doesn’t have enough people left to perform.

🇺🇸 Stand Tall. Honor All.

Learn more or support the mission at
www.operationhonorguard.us

09/18/2026

Aim High...Fly-Fight-Win!

Today, we honor the Airmen, past and present, whose courage, innovation and dedication have helped defend our nation from the skies and beyond.

Thank you for your service, and happy birthday, Air Force!

09/16/2026

I need younger veterans to hear this.
This Saturday, a Navy pilot named Wiley Greer is supposed to be laid to rest near Bel Air, Maryland. He served our country in the 1950s. His daughter contacted me because the family needed help finding a volunteer r***e team to give him the military funeral honors he earned.
I thought I would be able to find one.
I contacted nearly every honor guard I could locate around Bel Air. The search has been far more difficult than I ever imagined. I could not find a volunteer honor guard in Maryland with a steady statewide presence that was available to help. Delaware appears to have only one such team, and there are very few remaining in Pennsylvania.
One Pennsylvania team told me it has only nine members left—and two of them can no longer walk well enough to participate.
Think about that.
Veterans in their 70s and 80s are still putting on their uniforms, carrying r***es, traveling to cemeteries and standing in the heat, cold and rain so another veteran’s family can hear the final r***e volley and know their loved one’s service mattered.
But these volunteers are getting older (average age is 77). Their numbers are dwindling. If younger veterans do not step forward now, there will be more families like Wiley Greer’s—searching desperately for people to provide the final honors their veteran EARNED.
To my fellow younger veterans: your service does not have to end when you take off the uniform.
Your local American Legion or VFW honor guard needs you. You already understand duty, discipline, teamwork and what it means to stand beside another veteran. You can help preserve a tradition that means more to grieving families than words can explain.
Please visit www.operationhonorguard.us Our website includes an infographic explaining how to find and contact local honor guard commanders.
Join a team. Carry the tradition forward. Make sure the veterans who came before us are never laid to rest without the honors they earned.
Wiley Greer served his country.
Now his family needs someone to stand for him.

Brandon Merano- Executive Director/USAF Combat Veteran
🇺🇸 Operation Honor Guard

09/03/2026

For 40 years as a funeral director, I’ve watched volunteer veteran honor guard members stand beside thousands of families and ensure their loved ones receive the final military honors they earned.

Their dedication has never stopped making an impression on me. They give their time, travel the miles and show up in every kind of weather for one reason: to honor a fellow veteran.

Starting Operation Honor Guard was my way of saying thank you.

To every volunteer veteran honor guard member across this country: I see you, I appreciate you, and I’m grateful for what you do.

You stand tall for our veterans. We stand behind you.

— Rich Darby
Founder, Operation Honor Guard

🇺🇸

05/13/2026

One day, this could be what a military funeral looks like.

No volunteers.
No r***e salute.
No sounding of Taps.
No flag presentation delivered by someone who understands the weight of that moment because they once wore the uniform themselves.

Across the country, veteran honor guards are facing a serious decline in membership. Many of the men and women who have faithfully carried out these final military rites for decades are aging, while fewer new volunteers are stepping forward to take their place.

If nothing changes, the traditions that have honored our nation’s heroes for generations could begin to disappear.

At Operation Honor Guard, we are working to support honor guards, raise awareness, recruit new members, and help ensure every eligible veteran continues to receive the dignified farewell they earned through service to our country.

Because no veteran should leave this world without honor.

Learn more: www.operationhonorguard.us