California post honor guard wins national competition

For American Legion Post 291 honor guard members, the path to winning one of four classes in The American Legion’s National Convention Color Guard Contest took several tries, but they finally did it last year.

The Newport Beach, Calif., post won Military Open Class last August during the 97th National Convention in Baltimore. For nearly 20 years, Post 291’s honor guard has been rendering military honors for fallen veterans and participating in community events.

“We made a big decision that we wanted to win the national competition, and our new (honor guard and color guard) commander changed up our routine,” said Carmen Williams, judge advocate for Post 291 and a member of the honor guard rifle squad for 10 years. “I’ve been through three commanders, and I started out with a team of about six guys. Now we have 22 guys on the team, and (Brian Fleming Jr., has ) done a fantastic job of increasing the members of the honor guard, and he’s been a great commander.”

Fleming has been commander of Post 291’s honor guard and color guard teams since 2013. “The first year that I took over the team we stepped out there and took second place (in the 2013 National Convention Color Guard Contest Military Open Class)," Fleming said. “As the commander, I’m not going to accept second place any more, so it’s time to step it up, it’s time to change some things around. So I took our entire routine and threw the whole thing out the window and started from scratch. We completely coordinated a new routine, incorporated different moves, different ways of doing things, just going outside the box. Then I put the demand on the team to practice.”

The Legion's color guard competition's four classes include Senior Open, Military Open, Military and Advancing/Retiring Colors. The American Legion has designated these four classes of competition to the preservation and education of our country’s rich and patriotic history of honor guards and bands, and to uphold proper protocol, point of honor and respect for our nation's colors.

To prepare for the national competition, the team doubled their practice schedule in addition to keeping up with ceremonies and events. “When we do the competition, we have seven members on the competition team – two flag bearers, four riflemen and then myself commanding,” Fleming said. “It’s been a long and challenging road when it came to understanding what the competition was all about. The very first year, I was a rifleman and we didn’t know what to expect. We were very plane, very simple, marching around in circles. The more we competed, the more we evolved, the more we saw that we had to expand our horizons on what it is that we do. We realized it’s not going to be as simple as we thought it might have been when we first started.”

Being Post 291's honor guard and color guard commander is quite a task, but Fleming sees it as a very necessary duty. It’s something he’s been a part of even before his military service.

All through high school, Fleming was in the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and became the commander of the program. After joining the Marine Corps he lost some friends, not combat related between the wars, and ran the color guard for one of them and was a pal bearer for another. In Iraq, his company lost 10 Marines and he commanded an honor guard service for all of them in country.

“Even though we were in a combat zone we held a formation, we put the battlefield cross out in front of us, and we held a formal ceremony with a full honor guard service for them there," Fleming said. “Once we came back we had a big ceremony for all of them at the same time with the families present.”

When Fleming joined Post 291 and found out the post had an honor guard, he immediately joined. He did everything he could as a member of the team, excelling until the previous commander decided it was time to retire and Fleming was “voluntold” to take over.

“It’s been nothing but a privilege and an honor ever since,” Fleming said. “There is a lot of heart and a lot of history behind what I do here.”

There is time-honored tradition and history of this country with all three portions of the honor guard service. “Every part of what we do has a long-standing history," Fleming said. "Between the rifle volley and the playing of Taps coming from the Civil War, and the flag folding previous to that. For the active-duty military to not be able to provide that any more for your everyday veteran that served his time that didn’t pay the ultimate sacrifice in combat, to just let that go to me is inappropriate. It needs to be there.

"For us to be able to do that, and be able to keep that going, is very relevant and very important.”

The primary mission of Post 291's honor guard is to provide funeral services for veterans. Because of the military downsizing in the 80’s, the active-duty military is only required to provide a two-person detail for any fallen veteran. That only allows a bugler and one other to fold a U.S. flag and present it to the fallen family member. Post 291 provides a 12-person detail.

“We go out there with a team that includes a three-man flag folding detail, seven riflemen, a live bugler, and then myself commanding,” Fleming said. “So it puts a nice large presence for the family and be able to put the honor service on for the fallen veterans.”

The secondary mission of Post 291 is providing color guard services for various events throughout the community.

“Pretty much any opportunity that we have to be able to take the American flag and hold it high in front of a crowd, we’re there," Fleming said. “Could be private businesses, could be parades, could be a public event, anywhere we can raise that flag, we’re out there.”

Getting the flag in front of people is a good way to educate people about why it’s important to veterans and servicemembers. “We really hope that for those that don’t know (about the role of honor guards), we get them to ask questions," Fleming said. "What is this? Why do they do that? What is it for? What is it that they are doing, why are there rifles out here, why are they shooting guns, what are they for? It’s those questions they ask that are going to teach them and get them to understand what it is that we’re there for."

Each member of this team has a personal reason for the time and effort they put in. Williams says the draw that has kept him doing this for the past 10 years is simply that he just loves it. “I enjoy doing this, I enjoy serving our veterans, and it’s just an honor,” he said. “It’s something that I will do as long as I can.” To someone considering joining an honor guard Williams hopes they will stop considering and do it because it’s really an honor.

The Post 291 team represents a very diverse background of military service composed of all five branches of the military, and ranges in era of service from the Korean War to recent conflicts in the Middle East. These dedicated members provide services with no compensation, but purely as a patriotic duty to honor our country, servicemembers and veterans. Their military service is behind them, but they continue to serve with a focus on patriotism. And although they don’t ask for money, this particular color guard has brought in donations of mroe than $10,000 this year that goes directly to supporting veterans and their rehabilitation.

For Fleming, commanding Post 291's honor guard is almost like having a full-time job. It’s a big job, but a labor of love that gives this 2015 National Covention Color Guard Contest winners in the Military Open class great pride.