Military Funeral Honors For Our Fallen
Last Salute was honored to receive an award and recognition from the Brigantine VFW during their 2018 awards event. Last Salute is proud to continue its mission of providing military honor funeral services for area veterans and active duty personnel.
At the request of the United States Army, Last Salute conducts a memorial service on Joint Base Dix McGuire
Last Salute, was honored to be asked to conduct a memorial service at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for SSGT Sultan Holmes of the 328th Engineer Support Company.
Members of SSGT Holmes unit were present as Last Salute conducted the ceremony and presented a flag to SSGT Holmes father.
Last Salute would like to thank the 328th and Joint Base Security, Safety and Commanding Officer for expediting necessary security clearances for Last Salute to access the base with its equipment and to conduct the ceremony.
Below are a few photos from the ceremony.
Last Salute was honored to participate for the second year in the Pleasantville Elementary annual Veteran’s Day event. The kids are great and are very welcoming to the attending veterans. Last Salute conducted a flag folding demonstration and brought the units Humvees, M925A2 Troop Transport Truck and Civil War cannon.
Here are a few photos from the event.
Tony Orlando presents Last Salute the “Yellow Ribbon” award. Sgt. at Arms Chuck Knutson accepting.
Last Salute military funeral honor guard was extremely honored to receive the annual “Yellow Ribbon” veteran’s award from Tony Orlando during his concert at the Borgata on August 22nd 2017. The Borgata’s head of special events, Sally Nickel, brought Last salute to the attention of Tony Orlando. Mr. Orlando has been a very big supporter of our nation’s military and its veterans his entire career. His hit song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree” is the reason that Americans place yellow ribbons on trees while loved ones are deployed with the military. The Borgata held this concert and special welcoming ceremony for this year’s Atlantic City Air Show and to honor veterans. We would like to thank them for all their dedication and effort to produce such a top notch event in our military’s honor. It was an amazing experience and we want to wholeheartedly thank Tony Orlando and the Borgata for their recognition of Last Salute. Last Salute is an all-volunteer unit and is seeking additional volunteers to help provide military funeral ceremonies in the Atlantic County area. Contact Last Salute at [email protected]
Last Salute military funeral honor guard is extremely honored to have autographs from America’s real heroes in the Humvees that are used for the many military funerals Last Salute conducts each year. The “Gun Carriage” Humvee now has 10 Medal of Honor recipient signatures, and the “Caisson” Humvee has 7.
The “Gun Carriage” Humvee is pictured above. 10 (ten) Medal of Honor recipients have signed the dashboard in Last Salute’s Military Gun Carrige Humvee. The gun carriage HMMWV has completed more than one thousand ceremony missions and transports all necessary equipment to conduct the Last Salute ceremony including a Civil War cannon which is fired at every ceremony.
The “Caisson Humvee is pictured above. 7 (seven) Medal of Honor recipients have signed the radio tower (dash) in Last Salute’s Military Caisson Humvee. The Up Armored Slantback with machine gun turret, military HMMWV and M1102 Artillery Trailer proudly conduct dignified transfer (transport) of fallen heroes to their final resting place.
These heroes all want to help honor our veterans. They are a great group of men and continue to engage and support society through many community service programs and charities. Here are some of them signing the Humvees……
Hershel “Woody” Williams (image above), the last WW2 Medal of Honor recipient signed both Humvees.
Donald “Doc” Ballard
Barney Barnum signed the Black “Gun Carriage” Humvee in 2014 and signed the slantback “caisson” Humvee in 2025
If you have the time, you should check out each of these men’s Wikipedia page to see the amazing heroics each displayed which resulted in them being awarded our nation’s highest honor. These are truly legendary heroes that are a significant part of American history. We are humbled by their sacrifice and service.
Last Salute would like to acknowledge the generous and ongoing support of David the “Hummer Parts Guy”. He keeps these incredibly important and unique military Humvees operational.
We were also honored to have “Woody”, Robert Patterson and the other heroes fire our Civil War cannons, the “Jaime Lee” and the “Mike D”.
We thank these amazing heroes for their support of our mission
Stand tall young brother….
You are wearing your best Dress Blue uniform as you have been entrusted with a most sacred mission. You are to report to our most important checkpoint and post guard at the gates of Heaven.
You will stand your post with legendary brother Marines. You are now a member of the Marine Corps most decorated and fearsome unit.
We rest easy knowing that you hold vigil for us. You will secure your post and never surrender your position. You will check in each Marine as they arrive.
Stand tall young brother….. you are the beacon helping us all find our way home..
An enormous crowd gathered to pay final respects to PFC Tyler Wechsler. The video below is an uncut version of the last part of the ceremony.
PFC Wechsler funeral – Sunday 1 May 2017 0900 – Atlantic C0unty Veterans Cemetery
Last Salute was pleased to help the city of Brigantine New Jersey raise money for Fisher House, a veteran’s charity. Last Salute brought out the hardware, our military vehicles and of course our cannon, the “Jaime Lee”. We fired the cannon to signal the start of the plunge. Thank you Brigantine for your support to our nations military and veterans!!!
Last Salute was honored to participate in the November 2016 dedication of the Northfield Veterans Park
Last Salute was honored to appear at Atlantic City’s 9-11 Memorial Ceremony on September 11th 2016. The elaborate ceremony included many Police officers and Fire fighters. The National Anthem was sung by Miss America and Atlantic City’s Mayor was Master of Ceremony.
Last Salute fired the “Jaime Lee”, our Civil War cannon twice. Our rifle squad fired multiple times as well.
Sgt. at Arms Chuck Knutson and Lcpl Kyle Ragland folded and presented a flag to Mrs. JoAnne Saracini whose brother was a pilot on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, United Airlines 175. He was a former Navy Pilot that then flew for United Airlines.
SARACINI VICTOR J., age 51, Captain of United Airlines Flight 175, died on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Originally from Atlantic City N.J.,
We took a large number of photos and have posted about 130 here.
After months of research, parts ordering, blueprint study, historical documentary viewing, welding, sanding, painting, sawing, filing, assembling and testing, the “Jaime Lee” a Mountain Howitzer 12 pounder Civil War cannon is complete.
The christening date of July 4, 2016 was met but it came down to the wire with final completion tasks finished on July 3rd. The cannon was officially christened at 7am at the Absecon VFW on July 4th.
Our friends at Backward Flag Brewing in Lacey Township NJ made a special bottle of beer just for the christening. Backward Flag is owned by combat veterans and does a lot to support veterans.
Immediately following the christening, the cannon was transported to Smithville to take the lead in the Galloway 4th of July Parade along with the “Last Salute” Honor Guard.
After the parade, the cannon was fired by Galloway Township’s Police Chief, Donna Higbee.
Building the new cannon artillery carriage was an amazing experience. Knowing what the cannon was to be used for made the entire process more meaningful. It required a great deal more work and research than originally anticipated but it was absolutely worth all the effort. Please check out some photos from the build below.
Click here to see some of the heroes that have fired our cannon
Atlantic County NJ Military Honor Guard Funeral Services
Gun Salute
Flag Folding & Presentation
Honor Guard
Gun Carriage
Taps
Casket Guard
We carry them with us, we remember, we honor………………… we will not forget them.
Last Salute would like to thank the United States Coast Guard for helping us honor the heroes placed in our Prayer Box by flying them over restricted air space in Washington DC and over Arlington National Cemetery. We would like to the thank the flight crew that made this incredible honor mission happen, pilots, Jeff Graham and LT Christi McGee as well as Flight Mechanic AET1 Aimee Duncan.
Last Salute was pleased to attend and assist the Hammonton DAV Post at its recent post renaming ceremony. Last Salute members manned the food service line to help feed the attendees.
