Honor guard goes extra mile Published Feb. 25, 2011 By Nicole Turner Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Tinker Honor Guard members recently went "above and beyond" to fulfill their call of duty. On Feb. 12 the Tinker Honor Guard covered a record of nine different funerals in a single day. "The most we had before were seven functions in one day. This is the first time we've ever had that many funerals all at once," said Tech. Sgt. Kristen Gasaway, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Honor Guard. The Honor Guard is comprised of three flights: Alpha, Bravo and Charlie, with about 22 members or quota positions assigned to each. The flights rotate on-call duty to cover military funerals and any color guard requests that may come in. When there is a flight on call, one of the other two flights is on telephone standby in case assistance is needed. "We have a good system in place to handle overflow," said Staff Sgt. Lawrence Bach, base Honor Guard staff member and assistant NCOIC. He leads Bravo flight, which was on duty during the recent nine funerals. His day began at 6:30 a.m. and ended at 7:30 p.m. as he made sure all of the funerals had the required number of Honor Guard members in attendance. "Even though the members get to come and go, we always have to have one office staff-member here," Sergeant Gasaway said. "Being that he was on call with the flight, Sergeant Bach had to be here from the time the first member showed up, to the time the last team got back." As a flight leader, Sergeant Bach's role is to coordinate all of the members and assign them to funerals they need to attend. He also has to ensure the members have enough government vehicles and the required equipment to get the job done. He said they had to have seven vehicles that day and only three are usually assigned to them. The staff at the 72nd Logistics Readiness Squadron were a wonderful help in ensuring enough vehicles were on hand to get the members where they needed to be. "Sergeant Bach even had to coordinate a caravan of members the day before to go and pick up additional vehicles because there is no time the day of (the funerals) to work those things in," Sergeant Gasaway said. "That's in the midst of all the other funerals going on the day before." Five of the nine funerals were retirees and four were veterans. When Honor Guard members provide Military Funeral Honors, they always fold the flag and play taps, the traditional military musical piece. For retirees, the members also act as pallbearers and conduct a gun salute. Sergeant Bach said a retiree funeral requires seven Honor Guard members and a veteran funeral requires three. A total of 27 Honor Guard members worked on Feb. 12 , providing military funeral honors for all nine requests, traveling as far as Tulsa and Wagoner, Okla. Some members even participated in more than one funeral detail that day. "Some of our funerals are long distance because we cover a very large part of Oklahoma," Sergeant Bach said. Senior Airman Sarah Stephens, 965th Airborne Air Control Squadron, is an Honor Guard member who attended two different funerals that day, within only a few hours of each other. "We had a team of seven that had to double up," Airman Stephens said. "The first one was in Norman and the second one was in Edmond but we got there with enough time to practice." Dedicated Tinker Honor Guard members ended up working both days during that specific weekend. "Most of the members that worked one of the nine funerals on Saturday went right back out and did a funeral on Sunday," Sergeant Gasaway said.