Funeral Honors
The Funeral Honors image is the final panel of this series but certainly not necessarily the final of The Art of Immortalizing Heroes. Funeral Detail (Marine in Full Uniform, white gloves) is handing over the Folded Flag not to the family of a Fallen, but to America for ALL the Fallen Women, Men and Animals we have lost in preservation of the Ideals and Freedoms our Flag represents. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was fabricated by Acropolis West, the company that creates the markers for Miramar and Rosecrans National Cemeteries. The Tomb was fabricated with a very special, hand-picked marble and has a door that opens to five Dog Tags- Unknown Soldier, Unknown Sailor, Unknown Marine, Unknown Airmen, Unknown Coast Guard. These Dog Tags will Rest In Peace within the door, and a Sentry, created with over one thousand screws named November Romeo- a Sentry wears No Rank while standing his post- is positioned so that the door cannot to be opened without first removing the Sentry.
Perhaps the greatest aspect of the War Memorial Project is the backside. It is a corrugated wall will contain the Vietnam Memorial Wall on one side and have approximately 17,000 of the 58,291 Servicemembers’ Names Killed In Action. This side is entitled ’68, to reflect the worst year,1968, in which 16,899 of our boys were killed. The size of the names will be one quarter inch and engraved as so a guest/viewer will be able to ‘rub’ the name with a graphite stick. The other side of the Wall, entitled 38 Special, has approximately 3800 Gold Stars. The two criteria for the two-inch wooden stars were that they had to be painted/colored Gold and painted/colored by children or Special Needs Adults. A number on the underside of each star has a correlating participant’s name; nearly 1500 children and Special Needs Adults, internationally, participated in Operation Gold Star.
Timeline: covers all Servicemembers who died on or off the BattlefieldImage: Tomb Of Unknown Soldier, Sentry and Funeral Honors presenting the FlagFor Whom: All Servicemember- past, present, and futureMedium: Drywall Screws, paint, Dog Tags, MarbleParticipants: Acropolis West, Steve Boyer. Joe Pisano
