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Since many citizens and a few department members are not familiar with Honor Guards, you may be asking, “What exactly is an Honor Guard, what does an Honor Guard do, and why would the Lewisville Fire Department need an Honor Guard?” As with a lot of departments across the country, after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Lewisville Fire Department felt it was time to organize a “formal” Honor Guard to honor it’s own in the event of a tragedy as well as paying tribute to our profession. In actuality many departments across the state and country have honor guards to fulfill many duties. Honor Guards are called upon to perform a variety of functions, including parades, opening ceremonies, competitions, and funerals for fallen fire and emergency personnel. While this sounds simple enough, it may help to understand the how’s and why’s of Honor Guards by breaking down the actual name. Honor is a word that means “special esteem or respect” The word Guard simply means “a body of persons who form an escort, or perform drills at ceremonies” Individually, these words have simple meanings. Joined together, they make a statement. An Honor Guard shows respect and special esteem to a person or event, while watching over them. The Lewisville Fire Department Honor Guard is still a very small group and we have been joined by our pipes and drums. Who like the Honor Guard is starting from scratch. They are also made up of members of the Lewisville Fire Department. One of our main goals as an Honor Guard is to stay as traditional as possible and with this in mind our team motto is “keeping tradition alive”.
LEWISVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT PIPES AND DRUMS The Pipes and Drums started with some very dedicated individuals who liked the idea of bringing a piece of Fire Department tradition to the Lewisville Fire Department. Driver Damion Roberts stepped up and took on the task of Pipe Major with Driver Gary Apple, Firefighter Todd Carruthers and Division Chief Terry McGrath filling out the pipers. Drummers are Driver Chris Lawler, Firefighter Mark Murphree, and Firefighter Conrado Martinez. The group has been given twice monthly instruction by Don Shannon who has been described as one of “Ireland’s premier musical ambassadors”. It takes a big time commitment since they need to practice approximately 30 minutes to an hour each day. That practice paid off on October 2005 when the pipers made their debut at the Annual Awards Banquet. Soon the Pipes and Drums hope to play at City functions and perform in parades. The kilt they wear is a tribute to Retired Captain Butch Flanagan. It is called the Offaly tartan and represents the county in Ireland where the O’Flanagans originated. The colors are black, navy blue, green, and red with a small gold stripe. The uniform is in a traditional military style worn by most fire department pipe and drum bands. The group is hoping to expand by about 3 or 4 more pipers in the near future. |
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