Funeral Home Services and Veterans

There is a range of post-humus benefits available to veterans to ensure veterans get the honor and respect they deserve. After all, serving in the United States armed forces is a great sacrifice, and all of our veterans deserve to be honored. One such way our country honors veterans is with veteran funeral services at funeral homes in Allenwood, PA. All you have to do is submit a formal request.

Military funeral service honors are given to members of the United States Armed Forces, or those that served in the Marines, Army, National Guard, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard. The veteran must also meet one or more the following requirements:

• • Passed away while in active duty or Selective Reserve
  • Completed at least one term of enlistment or initial obligated service in the Selective Reserve, and was not dishonorably discharged
  • Served on active duty, or in the Selected Reserve, and was not dishonorably discharged

The United States has laws that provide eligible veterans with military funeral services honors. If an eligible service member’s family so requests, the government must provide no-cost honors including:

• Headstone – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) can furnish a headstone at no cost to the family. These veteran’s headstones are made available for any veteran regardless of date of death. These headstones come in bronze, marble and granite in various styles to match existing headstones in the place of burial.
• Flag Folding and Presentation – All eligible veterans have the right for to have at least 2 Armed Forces members serving as an honor guard during the funeral. At least one of these guards will be from the deceased’s service branch, and this guard will present a traditionally folded American flag to the next of kin or designated person upon the funeral’s completion.
  
• Flag Burial – A flag is provided at no cost to the family to drape the casket or accompany the urn. The flag will then be folded and presented to eligible family members such as the next of kin or requested friends. Family members may donate their flags to national cemeteries with Avenue of Flags so the flag can be flown on patriotic holidays to honor the deceased, or they may keep the flag as a keepsake or at-home memorial.
• “Taps”– “Taps” is a bugle song traditionally associated with military and patriotic funerals. Though live bugle performances are rarely seen these days, military funeral honors require that a high-quality recording of the song be played at any eligible funeral services if no live bugle is available.

If you would like to learn more about veteran funeral services or eligibility, please contact the department of Veteran’s Affairs. For more information on Allenwood, PA funeral homes, please reach out to Dale Ranck Cremation & Funeral Care. You can stop by and visit us or give us a call to learn more about what we can do for you in your time of loss, preplanning, or dealing with the death of a veteran.