The Correctional Peace Officers Foundation National Honor Guard hosted a training session from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the East Pembroke Fire Department on Barrett Drive on Saturday. Attendees from across the country participated.
“We’re a basic entry level honor guard training for honor guards that have come from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Oklahoma, furthest traveled. We have a group from Georgia, and we’re going to work with them to gain proficiency in posting of colors, carrying of colors. So, in a parade type setting, in a ceremonial type setting, putting them at the front of a stage. We also do a three-gun volley station where they work on if honors were presented to somebody who lost their lives in the line of duty, we would do a three-gun volley. A lot of times, it’s referred to as a 21-gun salute. We do that training with them. The last station that we work with them on is folding a flag over a casket and presenting it to a fallen family, a lot like the military uses,” says Raymond Gonsalves, Honor Guard Commander for the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation.
On Saturday there were 60 participants with 8 instructors.
The group was founded in 1984. They started holding their trainings at the East Pembroke Fire Department 2024.
“It started with the National Honor Guard coming out to stand with Attica correction officers. We’ve seen the opportunity to have other correction officers come and possibly train and get the ability to come here and do some training and also support the Attica correctional staff and the forgotten victims.We had maybe 20-30 that showed up,” says Patrick Gallaway, National Director/Correctional Peace Officers Foundation.
“We see this as a good fit because we have the meeting rooms, we have the large expanse, and we could move the apparatus out of the truck bays if we had to train indoors for inclement weather. What’s been nice is we’ve been blessed because every time we’ve had training, it’s been a beautiful day out, so everybody could train outdoors. With the grounds here and the asphalt and the parking lots that we have, we’re allowed to train outside.”
Video- getting the timing right during marching.
The Correctional Peace Officers Foundation is a national nonprofit that supports correction officers, peace officers and parole officers. They are the only national nonprofit that solely supports correctional staff.
“We cover line of duty death, and we’re with correctional staff when someone dies in line of duty. And the National Honor Guard team, with Commander Gonzales, will fly out and go anywhere in the United States and stand with the families and with the correction officers from other correctional facilities across the country.”
The participants will also attend the memorials at the Attica Correctional Facility on Sunday afternoon at 4:20p.m. and 5:15p.m.
“It’s great to have the opportunity to be here and to pass it along. The Correctional Peace Officers Foundation is all about taking care of their own, and we’re doing that by taking care of our current members and our honor guard, to grow them in the in their fields and what they’re doing,” says Gonsalves.
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