The Grant-Reeves Veteran Honor Guard has served Habersham and other Northeast Georgia counties for over 50 years. The guard has embraced the traditions of giving veterans who have passed away a proper military burial for decades, but as time goes on, veteran honor guards across the country are disappearing.
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 7720 Commander Bill Miles says that he has watched honor guards in communities become less and less common over the years, and says one reason they’re becoming so hard to find is that younger veterans don’t typically join veteran support organizations.
“We’re having a hard time [recruiting] Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to get involved in these organizations,” Miles says. “And these traditions are going away.”
MORE: Northeast Georgia area Veterans Day events
According to Miles, there are very few honor guards left in the state and only a couple that are properly certified as veteran honor guards. He says the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way of many certifications due to safety precautions in place to limit contact between individuals. The Grant-Reeves Veteran Honor Guard wasn’t officially certified because of those precautions, but that didn’t stop them from providing funeral services to veterans over the past year and a half.
“We kept doing it, we just implemented some safety measures,” he says. “We thought it was the right thing to do, Every veteran deserves to have military honors performed at their service.”
In addition to funerals, the honor guard participates in public events such as Veterans Day ceremonies. This year, the Grant-Reeves Honor Guard will pay tribute to veterans in a ceremony on November 11 outside the Rabun County Courthouse. They took part in Memorial Day observances in Clarkesville and Helen in May and the 9/11 tribute in Cornelia this past September.
The guard is comprised of volunteer veterans from the VFW, VFW Auxillary, Disabled American Veterans and American Legion, and offers flag folding and presentation, the playing of Taps and the 3-round volley to all honorably discharged veterans during their funeral services.
“It’s just the right thing [to do], they all deserve it,” Miles says. “It doesn’t matter if he did four years [of service] or if he did 28 like myself, we give it to everybody, and I think that’s a great thing. It’s a great service that we do in our community.”
If you, or anyone you know, is interested in being part of the Grant-Reeves Veteran Honor Guard, contact the Veteran Center through their website, or call them at (706) 778-4981.
