An Honorable Task : Police Department’s Volunteer Guard Performs Its Duties With Pride and Precision

The honor was all theirs.

That’s what Los Angeles police officials were saying Tuesday as they fired a salute of their own for the police honor guard.

It was a switch for the precision-marching, spit-and-polish group. Its members normally represent the Police Department by firing 21-gun salutes.

Theirs is often a sad duty, however. They ceremoniously fold the American flag, fire their rifle volleys and play “Taps” at the funerals of police officers.

Members of the 10-year-old volunteer honor guard have helped bury hundreds of lawmen--including more than two dozen Los Angeles police officers killed in the line of duty. They do it without pay, often traveling to cemetery services on their day off.

The squad plays a poignant role in the huge funerals--those for slain officers that attract hundreds of uniformed mourners. It has an even more important part in other last rites, though.

“When someone dies of cancer and maybe has been away from his job for a long time, people may have forgotten about him,” said Lt. John Desmond, a member of the unit since its start. “We give some dignity to his passing.”

Said Officer Petrona Redhead, who joined two years ago: “When an officer dies, we want their family to know they were part of our family.”

It wasn’t always an honor to be in the honor guard, however. And it wasn’t necessarily always an honor to have them show up at funerals.

Before the current volunteer squad was formed, “light duty” officers were assigned to the burial detail. Those are officers who have been injured or may have gotten in trouble who are assigned to pencil-pushing desk jobs. As a result, those officers were sometimes sloppy in appearance--and sloppier in graveside procedure, officials acknowledge.

No one was out of step Tuesday when the current honor guard marched into a police headquarters auditorium to receive red and blue Police Commission Unit Citations, however. They were presented by Commission President Jesse Brewer and Police Chief Willie L. Williams.

“This has grown into a precision unit that represents this city well throughout the state,” Brewer said. “‘The sharpest in the nation,” added Williams.

Besides funerals, the squad participates in special police events where posting of the colors is required. Their cemetery work attracts the most attention, however.

The volunteer concept is working so well that police are considering forming a special retiree’s honor guard to participate at the funerals of retired Los Angeles officers, officials said.

Squad members said it is sometimes unnerving to return to patrol duty after helping bury an officer who has been slain in the line of duty. “It can be a little scary,” said Officer Richard Spurling, who has been on the honor guard for eight years.

“The ones that get you the most are the ones where you see the wife and kids walk in behind the casket,” said Officer Vance Bjorklund, a Hollywood patrol officer who joined the team 10 years ago.

“Many times I’ve cried at services,” said Sgt. Randy Quan, who signed up for the squad after being impressed by its performance at the 1983 funeral of his father. “They made my mother tremendously happy. I cannot begin to tell you the appreciation of the family.”

Quan, a 16-year police veteran who works in the Watts area, said he wept openly as he stood at attention with other honor squad members at the funerals of two friends killed on the job, officers Art Soo Hoo and Bill Wong.

“If you know the officer, it’s real tough,” said Officer Tom Murrell, who sometimes has to struggle with his emotions as he plays “Taps” on the bugle during funerals.

On those occasions, he said, the honor is his.