Honoring Our Own

They're a familiar sight at funerals, parades, swearing-in ceremonies and other special occasions. Honor guards in full dress uniform are awe-inspiring whatever the setting, eliciting a mood of respect and patriotism wherever they appear. But if you look closely during an event where several honor guards are gathered, you may notice that each group has its own unique look and way of doing things. That was the situation in Canada, until someone had the idea to standardize honor guard protocols across the country.

"There were a number of EMS honor guards across Canada, and everybody was doing their own thing," says Darren Grout, EMT-P, Operations Supervisor, North Central Alberta Health Services EMS and Patient Transportation, and coordinator of the Parkland Paramedic Honor Guard in Stony Plain, Alberta. "Edmonton, which is right next door to us, had a well-established honor guard, and we had the luxury of tagging along with them and using their protocols when we first got started," he says. "In 2007, there were a number of EMS honor guards popping up across the country, and someone suggested we get everybody in western Canada together in a roundtable meeting and get to know each other outside of funerals, which is where we usually ran into each other. In 2008, we invited everybody across the country who we knew had an EMS or fire/EMS honor guard, and eight groups came together in Edmonton. That's when we decided to form the Alliance of Canadian EMS Honour Guards--a group that would develop protocols so we could go to a funeral in any province and the protocols for everyone would be the same. In 2009, we had our third annual meeting in Fredericton, New Brunswick."

Standardizing protocols wasn't difficult, says Grout, since almost everyone was already following the Canadian military standards. "You have to have some determined people and coordination and just do it," he says. "We started off with just the three most western Canadian provinces, and it's compounded into a national movement. One of the things we found at the start was there was a lack of information. The big events, where a paramedic was killed in a crash or things like that, were well-publicized, but many of the groups didn't hear about the 'smaller' deaths, so communication was a huge gap to be filled." To address those needs, the Alliance's website includes a forum to serve as a communication hub for guard units across the country. Members of U.S. guard units are also welcome to participate in the forum, which is linked to the website or directly accessible at https://parkland.30.forumer.com. The website--www.emshonourguard.com--also includes information that can be downloaded and used by groups just getting started, or those that want to be standardized to the Alliance group protocols. Examples of downloadable material are the EMS Funeral Planning Kit, which contains directions, suggestions and materials to help departments organize a line-of-duty death funeral; a Flag and Ceremonial Procedures Manual; and the Benevolent Society National EMS Honour Guards Guidelines, including Code of Conduct, Dress Uniform, Funeral Procedure, and Canadian Forces Manual of Drill & Ceremonial 201 Recommendations.

As in the States, the Canadian guards participate in memorial marches, hosting of local dignitaries, weddings, formal dinners and military funerals, says Grout. "We're also interested in what groups in the United States and abroad are doing," says Grout. "Information is great, and when you get a number of groups coming together, there's a huge learning potential."

For more on EMS honor guards and the importance of ceremonies and traditions in EMS, see the upcoming August 2009 issue of EMS Magazine.