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PGR-ANC RC Guide: Executing The
Mission
Page last changed:
11/09/2008 04:08:13 PM
Central Time (server time)
CONTENTS:
Staging Briefing
Checklist
Transit from Staging
ANC
Parking
Flag Line / Honor Line
Placement Graveside Honor
Line
"Traffic
Management"
ANC Check-In Escort
Placement / Order
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There are many things the are common between the execution
of ANC missions and mission in other venues. There are also some unique
things we do at ANC that are different than other venues.
Guidelines will be documented to cover both the common
to all PGR, and the unique to ANC steps in executing the mission once it is
planned and published.
The key operative word here is
"Guidelines"!
We are striving for a
consistent execution, but need flexibility to handle variations in each mission
- at the discretion of the RC.
So what follows is NOT "THE" way to
do things, but rather one way to fo things - a way that has worked - a set of
guidelines (not hard bound rules). More "things that work" will be added
or substituted as we learn and adapt - as we learn by watching, doing, changing!
Staging:
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- RC should arrive approx. 15-30
minutes ahead of the published stage time
- Staging Locations:
- Iwo Jima Memorial
- Bikes backed to the curb at
45 degree angle
- Left side of drive
- Around the circle, next to
the monument steps
- Murphy's Funeral Home
- Enter front driveway, go to
the left parking area
- Park on side away from the
street
- Back into slots closest to
building -
- 2 bikes per slot - staggered
front to back
- Park tight if services to be
held
- 4 bikes to a slot - 2 in
back 2 in front
- Other locations (funeral homes,
churches, commercial locations)
- Needs scouting (or checking
via Google Maps - Satellite)
- Discuss with FH / church
contact
- Minimize impact on others
Briefing Checklist:
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RC to cover at the mission / mission
segment briefing of Riders
- Cell phones: turn off or turn to
vibrate only
- Mounted flags or not
- Hero info: Name, Rank, Age,
Service, reason for demise (KIA where / MIA / Other)
- Mission summary: ANC funeral,
calling hours, church/chapel service, etc
- Overview of what is
planned to happen, timing, etc
- Route to be ridden, special
considerations
- Route "cautions" - merges,
manholes covers, etc)
- No pictures of
services, family, friends, comrades-at-arms.
- Pictures of PGR
lines, etc are OK - as long as family is not present
- We are here to honor!
- No smoking (except at RC
designated areas & when no family present -
remember: strip your butts
& take with you)
- When waiting, sitting on
bikes / ground is OK - no laying down
- Quiet riding discipline
needed
- If protestors show,
ignore them and follow the RC directions on other
actions / reactions
(guidelines
link for RC's on protestors - coming soon)
- We will leave ANC as
a group - if you want to visit a particular gravesite,
you must exit ANC and reenter through the Visitors
Center and walk to that gravesite.
- "Traffic Management" actions
planned
- Columns:
- Staggered two column
- 1 sec - 2 sec spacing ("one
thousand", "two thousand)
- From rear of bike ahead to
front of your bike - based on some marker
- Hand signals:
- Pass back immediately: right,
left, slow, speed up, etc
- Signal only
when you are at the "hazard" - left
/ right side hazard
- What to do on arrival:
- When to furl flags
- Where to park
- How we hold and
salute with flags
- Etc
- Flashers and High Beams
- Cages at the rear
- If escorting, see Escort Bike
Placement below
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Transit from
Staging to ANC:
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-
If NOT Escorting:
- If Escorting:
- We are part of the funeral party,
accompanying the Hero's remains and will follow the hearse - letting
them "run interference" (advise guards of destination, etc) for us
- To be on the safe side, find out
which gate the hearse is using, and, before leaving the FH or church
-- make the Ft Myer
Special SOP Call using the gate name and destination, and
adding "as part of the funeral procession".
- Follow the hearse
- Depending on ANC destination -
park per below
- See Also: Escort Placement below
ANC Parking:
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- ANC Administration Bldg
- Left onto Eisenhower, follow
Funeral Route
- Park 2 by 2 on right curb
- Leave room for 2 - 3 hearses at
the stop sign, before parking first bike
- Furl all large flags once parked!
- Ft Myer Old Chapel
- Left through the Chapel gate, to
back of parking lot
- Or Left off McNair Rd, to the
back of the parking lot
- Back into the spaces along the
curb - park close
- Use flags for Honor line
- Furl all large flags before
heading into ANC at rear of procession
- In all cases, these are
guidelines and the mission RC has to make the call on how they are
applied/not
- Ft Myer Memorial Chapel
(revised 07/10/08)
- If coming in through Old Chapel
Gate
- Just before the Memorial
Chapel turn left into the parking lot, and left into second row
of slots
- If coming in thru the Hatfield
gate (off Washington BLVD)
- Just after the Memorial
Chapel turn right into the first parking lot entrance and left into
second row of slots
- Park in the first empty double
row of parking spaces
- Pull through and use both
back-to-back spaces
- Park 2 bikes staggered in in each
space, 4 bikes per back-to-back space set
- This leaves us headed out, for
easy line-up on exit.
- Use flags for Honor line
- Furl all large flags before
heading into ANC at rear of procession
- In all cases, these are
guidelines and the mission RC has to make the call on how they are
applied/not
Flag Line / Honor Line Placement:
- Funeral Homes - Visitation &
Services:
- Spaced out across the front of
the building, backs to the building
- Spaced evenly, not blocking
people in/out
- Rotate/relieve standees, always
keeping two flanking the doorway
- Funeral Homes - Remains loading /
unloading
- Line the pathway between the
building & hearse
- Make sure honor guard / pall
bearers have room to pass
- Do not block the view of any
mourners
- Churches:
- Either side of entry door (doors)
- Line the walkway to the doors -
evenly spaced
- Across the front of the building
on the edge of the sidewalk
- Rotate/relieve standees, always
keeping two flanking the doorway
- Old Chapel
- Across the main road from the
chapel, immediately in front of first row of cars
- Centered on chapel door, evenly
spaced
- The honor guard (and caisson and
band - if present) will be in front of us (red marks on pavement)
- Stand in the middle of the front
of the marked parking spaces - allow folks to pass between cars and
us
- Mount line upon arrival
- Hold line until chapel doors
close behind the Hero
- Fall out until honor guard
returns, then remount line
- Once hearse doors or caisson
doors are closed, fall out for procession (we follow cars)
- Memorial Chapel
- If no caisson and band: across
the drive from the door, on the grass, back 3 feet from curb -
allows others to greet us easier
- If caisson and band: across the
drive and across the street on the sidewalk, facing chapel
- Centered on chapel door, evenly
spaced
- The honor guard (and caisson and
band - if present) will be in front of us (and maybe across the
street)
- Mount line upon arrival
- Hold line until chapel doors
close behind the Hero
- Fall out until honor guard
returns, then remount line
- Once hearse doors or caisson
doors are closed, fall out for procession (we follow cars)
- Also see -
Flag Rules
- In all cases, these are guidelines
and the mission RC has to make the call on how they are applied/not
Graveside Honor Line / Protocol:
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- PGR usually follows the funeral
procession to graveside
- Park in tight column of two's as
directed by ANC staff
- Proceed immediately forward toward
the remains transport vehicle
- Do NOT use the pavement, you may
interfere with invited guests
- Walk on the graveside side
(usually left side) of the grass next to the road
- If time permits, form a line within
sight of the transport, but not ahead of the family waiting.
- As the Honor Guard begins to move the
remains from the transport, come to attention and salute
- Hold position and salute until the
remains are on the bier and the Honor Guard has come "hands off"
- Then move to the main Honor Line
position
- Away from the funeral party
- Visible, but not too close
- Unless invited by the ANC staff
to move closer - sometimes happens when there are very small funeral
parties.
- In cases when you are still moving
and the Honor Guard begins to remove the remains
- Stop in place (no formation)
- Come to attention and salute
- Hold the salute as per above -
"hands off", then proceed per above
- Note: this is reason we don't
want to advance toward the transport via the roadway - we could be
"holding our salute" then the invited guests are directed to more to
graveside, following the bearers - and we need to be out of their
way.
- Once the "movement" salute is
dropped, the RC directs 'at ease" (most comfortable for us older folks)
- The RC will direct "attention" and
"salute" when the Honor Guard is ready for the volley and taps.
- The RC will direct "order arms" and
"at ease" when the Honor Guard does likewise.
- PGR will remain in place until the
ANC funeral manager dismisses all but the family.
- RC will turn the formation so it
faces the family's exit path
- Will then direct "attention" and
"present arms" for salute to:
- The Arlington lady and her
escort
- All the burial flags (usually
family members)
- Family members if so
recognized
- Salutes will be offered when the
target of the salute is about 15 feet before the PGR position
- Allows them to be easily spotted
as the move toward our position
- Sets up a "reasonable" length of
time for us to hold the salute - see below
- And held until the target of the
salute is 15 feet past
PGR - past the end of the PGR line
- On cases where the target enters
the "salute zone" and tarries to talk, the RC should call "order
arms"
- At any time, any PGR member
should call" come to attention and present" arms
- When ever a burial flag or
any flag comes into the formations "salute zone"
- Once the above salutes are completed,
the RC will direct "fall out to the "hearse area", where PGR will
reform
- Generally on the grave side of
the road, ahead of the location the hearse would be
- RC will designate where, exactly
- In formation
- When the family cars are about to
depart, the RC will call 'attention'
- As the family leaves the RC will call
"present arms" and then "order arms" and "fall out" when family is past
- Timing of "fall out to the bikes"
- If the ANC crew arrives to dismantle
the grave site, PGR should depart
- If the family is obviously going to
'stand around forever" the RC should use discretion and depart,
rendering a walking salute to the family when doing so.
- Whenever Honor Guard "colors" are
present, the RC should follow the following guidelines for saluting:
- As they approach, render honors
once they are 15 feet away and hold until they are 15 feet past
- As they depart the field, apply
the same 15 foot rules
- If the US flag is lowered but kept
vertical, you may drop the salute
- Exercise of judgment is required
when it arrives or departs diagonally, etc.
- In all cases, these are guidelines
and the mission RC has to make the call on how they are applied/not
"Traffic Management":
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- If invited by LEO, we can hold
intersections the have blocked, and then fall in at the rear
- If no LEO, we must recognize that
blocking is illegal, however . . .
- Mission planning should consider
safety in deciding if escorts will be by all riders, or 1 -2
designated riders
- Routes should be planned to
maximize safety, minimize traffic "conflicts"
- We should consider ourselves a
funeral party and act accordingly
- Headlights, flashers, keep
tight
- Head of group stops for red
lights
- Group continues through
lights that have turned red during transit of group
- We need to designate riders to
assist the group in navigating traffic
- Remind cross traffic that we
have funeral rights
- Hand signals & physical
presence at intersections
- Direct overtaking traffic
around the group - on ramps especially
- Provide a wide end-of-group
presence
- Multiple bikes, multiple
lanes if not impeding traffic
- Flagged bikes to indicate
"special group"
ANC Check-In:
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- Upon arrival at ANC, the RC needs to
check-in with the ANC Funeral Manager (FM)
- Let him/her know we are there for
the Hero-name's funeral
- Also so they know to manage
the multiple-groups-at-same-time exiting parking problems
- to let us get in a the
rear of the right funeral
- Find out who the FM is - so we
can spot him/her later as procession forms and we follow
- The receptionist is just inside
the doors, on the right
- Just past the receptionist is a
large LCD panel displaying funeral information:
- Time, Hero, Family room number,
Funeral Manager name
- Note: Family, friends meet in the
Family Room and are given instructions by the FM
- Note: Family room provide the
"holding areas" used by the FM's to manage the exit timing and
procession timing of the multiple funerals schedulesdat the same
hour.
- The Receptionist will help you
identify "your" FM
- Find out which car (Plate # ANC
nn) they are using so we can track movement - see above
- To ask if there is anything we
can do to help
- After check-in, return to parked
bikes
- Watch for "our" FM to come out, get
in car and drive to check grave site
- Watch for return - getting close to
procession time - may want to move bikes close to stop sign
- Watch fro "our" FM to lead out the
funeral party from Admin Bldg - really close now
- Move out bikes (and cages, if any -
at the rear) to fall in at the end of the procession
- Be aware to this situation:
- Multiple groups may exit Admin at
the same time, and exit parking lot for procession at same time
- FM's should manage this and help
us out
- We have had one instance of
following the wrong funeral
- Did not have enough help from
the FMs
- We have reviewed our
procedures, and they work, so vigilance is best bet
- ANC funerals at either of the Ft Myer
Chapels do not require the above check-in procedure
- The ANC FM will see us there with
our flag line set
- They know we know to follow the
procession from the chapel to the grave site
Escort Placement / Order:
- During Escort and/or Transition, we
generally want the flagged bikes to the front, then other bikes, then
cages
- An exception is when we have a large
group and we might want the large flagged bikes:
- Spread evenly down the length of
the column
- All in one of the columns - the
one most visible to or next to traffic
- Two large -flagged bikes at the
every end
- Greatly increases identity and
visibility and safety
- When doing escorts with LEO:
- Our preferred order:
- Ahead of the Hero (hearse or
transport vehicle) - 1 -2 large flagged bikes - USA and Hero's
Service flag if we have it
- Ahead of the family cars - 1
-2 large flagged bikes - USA and Gold Star flag if we have it
- Rest of the bikes - two
options
- Either in front of the
family
- Or behind the family,
ahead of the rest of the cars
- In reality, the LEO's "rule"
- At best we get to go behind
the family, in front of the rest
- Often, its all at the end
- I would keep pressing the LEO in
charge to let us:
- Get the two bikes in
front of the hearse, behind the LEO "bumper car
- And the rest behind the
family
- When doing FH escorts without LEO:
- To qualify as a funeral, it is
generally thought the first car has to be the hearse
- The FH will rule
- We should strive to get our
preferred order - per above under LEO escort
- And our "traffic manager" bikes
will be out in front of the 2 lead bikes
- And we may want 2 flagged bikes as
the very tail end - for visibility
- When doing PGR escorts of families,
etc
- Same as above, except we rule -
unless the family overrides - not likely
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