Pope learns from USAF honor guard Published Aug. 24, 2006 By Staff Sgt. Angela Shepherd 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs SEYMOUR JOHNSON AFB, N.C. -- "In honore et dignitate" is their motto. And that's what they do. Whether they're part of the base honor guard team or the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard team, they render military honors to Air Force personnel and their families with dignity during funerals, other ceremonies and events. From Aug. 14 until Wednesday, three members of the U.S. Air Force's Honor Guard team from Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C., spent hours upon hours at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., training base honor guard members from the 43rd Airlift Wing, Seymour Johnson AFB, Langley AFB, Va., and the North Carolina Air National Guard. The first day of training was spent entirely in the classroom, with the majority of the lessons focusing on proper wear of the ceremonial uniform. The Air Force team also taught basic standing manuals, or maneuvers. After the first day of classroom training, they took it outside and shifted the focus to the proper way to pay tribute to the families of a lost loved one during a full military honors funeral. "Our goal is to standardize the way military funeral honors are performed across the Air Force," said Tech. Sgt. Charles Forrest, NCO-in-charge of the USAF Honor Guard's base honor guard training program. "We should be able to bring them all together without any variances." To do that, the three team members spent time teaching proper procedures for pall bearing, the 21-gun salute, posting colors and even bugling. Every base team member rotated through each element so they could learn the ins and outs of that element. They even performed full mock funerals so they could get a true perspective of how the different elements should work together. Sergeant Forrest and his team members, Staff Sgt. David Little and Senior Airman Andrea Isder, travel to different areas around the country providing this training, stopping in each area every two years. Since there are so many bases, they limit their scope to areas of responsibility and invite members from bases within that area to attend. Staff Sgt. Eric Rossin, the NCO-in-charge of Pope's honor guard feels the training had huge benefits he'll be able to bring back to his base team. "The training gave us a good chance to clarify what was hazy in the training manual," he said, explaining that reading the manual and using the visual aids from the manual didn't always fully demonstrate how things should happen. "So I'm going to bring this back with me, and we'll fix a lot of minor details and tighten up our movements. It's also good to know we'll be able to join up with another honor guard detail and be streamlined."