Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 3, 1993 TAG: 9307030282
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL CSOLLANY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The interesting thing about Harry Guilliams is that he's not a funeral director, cemetery employee or minister.
He is a veteran, and along with some of his colleagues at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1264, Guilliams provides a patriotic funeral ceremony for fellow veterans.
Thursday, when the veterans buried Guy E. Cromer, the scene was moving.
The color guard - Jim Stasko, Carl Schilling, Cornelius Wilson, and Buddy Ellis - stood at attention near the flag-colored coffin.
It was hot, especially for these uniformed men who didn't enjoy the shade a tent provided for the family.
The American and VFW flags they held swayed as the Rev. Elmer Clemons officiated the ceremony.
As the attendants paid their last respects to Cromer, who had served in the Navy for four years aboard the USS Maryland, Gail Dalton switched on a tape recorder which played "Taps."
The last note of the song was still resonating through the air at Evergreen Cemetery when James Ellot, John Sink, and Floyd Oney Jr., raised their rifles and fired into the air - saluting their comrade.
When the ceremony ended, Guilliams and George Chocolate presented the family with a small American flag.
The ceremony could be described in one word: respect.
"We serve all veterans. Male and female, black or white, it doesn't matter. And we're the only ones that do it," Guilliams said in the air-conditioned VFW lodge after the ceremony. "And there's no charge, but we will accept donations."
Guilliams, who was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked, said the veterans buried 65 people last year - sometimes in weather worse than Thursday's heat.
"When they bury people, they don't wait for it to stop raining or snowing," he said.
But when families ask for pall-bearers, Guilliams said they have to ask for help from the VFW Post 4522 in Vinton. "We're getting too old to carry people around," he said.
The veterans said they hope their work will revive the patriotism they feel this country has lost.
"When they play the National Anthem, people walk around and dance," Stasko said.
Stasko even thinks the most patriotic of holidays isn't what it used to be.
"I think the Fourth of July is going to hell. When I was a kid, there were picnics and parades and everything. This town doesn't know a thing about parades," he said.
And that's why the veterans will make several presentations at events during this holiday weekend.
They will be at the Music for Americans ceremony tonight at Victory Stadium. Sunday, the firing squad will appear at the Vinton War Memorial at 6 p.m. and at the Hollins Road Baptist Church at 7 p.m.
by CNB