Bellevue Fire Department honor guard gets training from Marines

Published 1:31 pm Thursday, May 24, 2012

By Sgt. Austin Hazard

United States Marine Corps

A hand in the community and impressive, sharp appearances are generally the primary ways the military influences the public, but Marine Barracks Washington (D.C.) has a larger and deeper role in shaping a community more than 2,000 miles away – Bellevue.

For a decade, the Bellevue Fire Department has mimicked the Marine honor guard, bearing approximately 25 caskets and presenting their color guard at more than 100 events. Their honor guard, the self-professed oldest honor guard of the state of Washington, visits the marine barracks for a week each year to train with the Marine Corps Body Bearers and the official Marine Corps Color Guard.

“Since we got off the plane, I’ve felt welcomed and honored for this experience,” said Jesse Lewis, Bellevue firefighter and emergency medical technician who is serving his first year with the honor guard. “The guidance we’ve gotten from the body bearers and the color guard is just outstanding. This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. It’s really inspired me to try to live up to their high standards.”

May 14 marked the fire department’s 10th consecutive year training with the Marines. Every year, the Bellevue honor guard sends a team of five or six members to train to carry their flags and bear the weight of their fallen brethren the way the Marines do.

Bellevue firefighters learn to march the way the body bearers do, slow and smooth, and how to handle caskets in the same fashion as the body bearers, including lifting the casket to eye level before laying it over the grave site. Along with using only six bearers, raising the casket to eye level is a feat no other armed forces honor guard replicates.

“We refuse to change our program,” said Lt. Richard Burke, Bellevue honor guard commander, noting that the Bellevue Fire Department even uses six body bearers like the Marine Corps instead of the traditional eight. “The Marines have set the bar and our goal is to meet that standard, not change it.”

Color guard Marines also instruct the firefighters how to hold and present both the American flag and their organizational flag, which closely resembles the Marine Corps battle color.

“I think they improved a lot over the week,” said Lance Cpl. James West, a Marine Corps Color Guard team leader who has trained the Bellevue honor guard for two years now. “They really showed that they wanted to be here, that they wanted to learn. Their passion and our shared dedication made it all fun.”

After visiting the Marine barracks the first three years and becoming familiar and proficient in the barracks’ methods of providing honors, the Bellevue department’s honor guard began supporting police and firefighter funerals for line-of-duty deaths, totaling approximately 25 funerals, and also presented their color guard at 100-200 events in those seven years.

“We recreate what they do as best we can. We’re not 6’2” or 250 pounds, but we do our best,” joked Burke, citing the Marine Corps Color Guard’s height requirement and the body bearers’ muscular frames.

According to Burke, this annual training originated in the early ‘90s, when Bellevue’s fire department was looking for an honor guard training program. One of the department’s fire chiefs had a nephew who served at the Marine barracks and had told the firefighters about the Corps’ body bearers.

“It took a while to put together,” said Burke, who organized and started the training event. “We finally came out in May of 2002 with six members. We were told we were the first firefighters to train with these guys. We’ve been coming back every year since then.”

Several of this year’s members noted that the department’s yearly visits to the barracks are paid almost entirely through fundraising and donations.

“It’s such an honor for us to be able come back each year. It kind of reinvigorates us and reminds us why we do this,” said Burke of their duty as honor guard. “Our guys are all volunteers to the guard.”

Today, the Marine Corps Body Bearers and Marine Corps Color Guard have indirectly influenced dozens of agencies and even state policy. After a big push from the state for a line-of-duty death policy to be established on a departmental and state level, BFD approached the state council.

“We created that document based on the Marine Corps’ policy for funerals,” said Burke. “So Washington state’s departments are standardized. The whole state uses Marine Corps methods, terminology and even the same drill manual.”

However, the reach of this training doesn’t end with the state of Washington. BFD hosts an honor guard class each year to teach what their firefighters learn to other fire departments, and even some police departments.

“We’ve reached and trained, conservatively, approximately 25 different police and fire agencies in the seven years we’ve been passing on this experience,” explained Burke, adding that the course is at no expense to visiting agencies.

“It’s such a great thing for them to come out here,” said West. “We teach five of them, who turn and teach 200, who go out and perform at hundreds of ceremonies and events. They only spend a week here, but its impact is exponential.”

Members of the Bellevue Fire Department honor guard thank members

of the official Marine Corps Color Guard at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.,

on May 18. The firefighters visited the Barracks for the 10th consecutive year

to train with the Corps’ body bearers and color guard to learn to perform

funerals and present their flags the way the Marine Corps does.

Courtesy Photo, U.S. Marine Corps