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Gen. Mike Minihan, Commander of Air Mobility Command, visits the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station June 8, 2024.

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Niagara hosts honor guard training

  • Published
  • By Peter Borys
  • 914th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
NIAGARA FALLS AIR RESERVE STATION, N.Y. --  The Air Force Honor Guard is the highest standard for military bearing, discipline and professionalism. Their members are the face of the Air Force to the American and global public. The Honor Guard Flight at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station is part of the Air Force's elite team. Reaching these standards is not easy and requires many hours of training and practice.

Recently Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station hosted a mobile U.S. Air Force Honor Guard training flight from Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C. These dedicated young men spent eight days training Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard base honor guard units from all over New York and New Jersey.

"The base honor guard program is set up where if each base has the funding, it will have an Area of Responsibility," said Senior Airman Jacob Johnson, a formal training instructor in training flight for the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard.

They will send different teams to do different funerals, said Johnson. "All of the base honor guards get their training from the Air Force Honor Guard Team in order to keep all ceremonies consistent. That's why we're here to create the consistency."

Johnson added, "Base honor guards do so much. They have to drive to and from each detail they perform. Sometimes more than one a day and in different directions from their base. The base honor guards are very important especially to the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard. We obviously cannot do the entire United States. They play a huge roll."

Some base honor guard members are new and others have had a few years experience such as Staff Sergeant Michael Kopp, Equal Opportunity Advisor, 914th Airlift Wing. Kopp has been an honor guard member since 2000 with different units within the Air Force and Army.

"A course like this really helps us because we learn parts of ceremonies that we don't do on a normal basis, like a six man flag fold," said Kopp. "Those are very rare for us. We can train on them but it is really hard for us to stay up on the current standards. Having this team come in, show us the proper way and what things have changed benefits us greatly when we go to a full service funeral."

Kopp stressed this sort of training is a way of making sure that the team is perfect every time. For him and many others like him joining the honor guard gives him a sense of pride and a way of giving back while still in the service.

"I know how much it means to the family to have an honor guard present at the funeral," said Kopp. "It is something more I could do besides my normal duty and service to country."

With fourteen years of experience one particular funeral stood out in his mind when he had to present the flag to a child whose father had died. Still visibly moved by the memory of that day, Kopp said it reminded him of his own children.

"Throughout all the bases that we travel to we are impressed by how professional the teams are," said Johnson. "You see some Airmen who uphold the very bare minimum and then you see the people in the base honor guard programs that are trying to do their very best to maintain that step above."

For more information on the base honor guard program visit:
http://www.niagara.afrc.af.mil/units/basehonorguard/index.asp