My ambulance used in a full honors funeral

Bruce Biancalana

PCS Life Member
Ambulance 8 was requested to carry the body of a very accomplished and loved county EMS coordinator. I removed the stretcher and equipment and put a casket rack in place. The funeral was a formal full honors funeral.











 
This is an excellent idea and Im sure the family loved it. Im just curious to know why on the 2nd picture the director holds the casket backwards, I never did that in 12 years... and just don't understand the move.
 
This is an excellent idea and Im sure the family loved it. Im just curious to know why on the 2nd picture the director holds the casket backwards, I never did that in 12 years... and just don't understand the moove.

Martin I'm not sure. If it helps to answer your question, when we got to the cemetery the honor guards asked me where the head was in the coach, I couldn't answer him. We asked the director, he explained the body was loaded in the coach feet first so when the honor guards removed the casket, the body would face the rising sun as it was place on the mound over the grave. Feel free to add opinions or knowledge as I'm not really sure.
 
good job. the car held it own against any thing else. I'm guessing due to the way the grave was placed and the road in. they elected to put the casket it back-wards rather then do a turn around with it at the cemetery. the physical shape of most pall bearers begin in question and dropping the casket doing a unpracticed maneuver on rough ground the fear. a simple in and out being the best over tradition.
 
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This is an excellent idea and Im sure the family loved it. Im just curious to know why on the 2nd picture the director holds the casket backwards, I never did that in 12 years... and just don't understand the move.

May be a regional thing Martin, but we almost always face the casket on each end...
 
so your saying Kent the lead walks backwards ? most I have seen is the lead walks forward facing frontwards with his arms behind him holding onto the casket.
 
so your saying Kent the lead walks backwards ? most I have seen is the lead walks forward facing frontwards with his arms behind him holding onto the casket.

That's what we do.

Another regional question, is it common in USA to have that kind of "grave service". with those covers to protect people from rain, bagpipes, etc.. Do not want to look cheap but all we have here is a "our lord" prair, few things and gone. Im quite impressed
 
Wonderful job Bruce.

For someone with no knowledge in the area, are skeleton racks generic? My 63 combination does not have rollers but two points just in front of the rear door where a rack could be inserted. I have thought this would be something I could also offer to EMS and CFD, if I had the correct rack. Thanks in advance.
 
so your saying Kent the lead walks backwards ? most I have seen is the lead walks forward facing frontwards with his arms behind him holding onto the casket.

yes Mike, there are obviously many different theories on how to do that, but in our area by far both men on the casket are facing each other. In many cases too, the man on the foot end or leading the way, is making eye contact with the other person on the casket or pushing back on the casket to slow it down or go at a good pace so the the casket and the family don't get separated by too much distance. If the man on the front is facing forward, he can't see how well paced the family is behind the casket.... howevah, I say all of that and have good, professional friends who do exactly what Martin referred to...
(One funeral home I worked in mortuary school said we could face away from the casket like you mention, and the one time I tried it, I wasn't used to it and the church truck caught the back of my shoe and took it right off of the heel of my foot and I had to stop and get my heel back in... I suppose I just wasn't coordinated enough... )
 
I missed two questions:
*Tents are common and some areas and not others, very very common in our area...
*I have been doing this 33 years, and was always instructed that the casket goes in the church foot first (when possible), out of the church foot first (when possible), and IN THE HEARSE FOOT FIRST ALWAYS. The set up at the grave and location is sometimes not known until we arrive, so the casket is not placed in the hearse in relation to anything at the grave. It just goes in foot first and when we get there we determine what route the casket needs to go for proper placement, and that is often dependent on other monuments, trees or any obstruction. We may get it out one way, go half way and change hands for proper placement.
 
Wonderful job Bruce.

For someone with no knowledge in the area, are skeleton racks generic? My 63 combination does not have rollers but two points just in front of the rear door where a rack could be inserted. I have thought this would be something I could also offer to EMS and CFD, if I had the correct rack. Thanks in advance.

Now I wonder if you could use a roller rack in a type lll ???? has it been done ?
 
Mike have not seen that done in Ontario yet,what I have seen is an ambulance usually ahead of the coach draped with black bunting,Dean in Windsor did use his Chrysler ambulance for a medics funeral a year or so ago.
 
Mike We still have an old rack like this one, it came with a 1962 Superior back then. I used it once in a delivery truck (No kidding, the guy was a good and dedicated employee and his wife asked for a truck instead of a hearse!!) but as far as I know you can just put it on the floor without any fixing. I assume it can fit but the interior setting is not the same.
 
Now I wonder if you could use a roller rack in a type lll ???? has it been done ?
Yes, I have seen it.

When we did my father's funeral, the rack just sat flat on the floor of "his" '60 Flxible Buick ambulance. It can sit on the floor of a box ambulance, too. (Of course, if it has the mount for a modern FW Model 35 cot or Stryker cot, the antlers have to come out and the hook at the back would be a problem. I suppose you don't have that so you should be OK.)
 
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