Honoring Those Who Serve
When it comes to honoring veterans, our level of dedication and commitment is unrivaled. There is no limit to what we will do to recognize, honor, and pay due respect to those men and women whose service to our country was also unlimited. You will not find another funeral provider that does more for veterans and their families than our family of funeral homes.
Gulf Pines Memorial Park honors all veterans with special burial and funeral discounts on pre-arrangements. For more information, download our Veterans Garden brochure.
Honor * Recognition * Respect
The following is a brief description of some of the honorable services and recognition provided by the Kays-Ponger & Uselton family of funeral homes. We are confident you will recognize that we are uniquely positioned and committed to providing an unparalleled level of respect and dignity to the services for our veterans.
A Veteran’s First Call
Our respect for a veteran is demonstrated from the moment we are summoned to serve. When we are notified of a death, we confirm that the deceased was a veteran. Then, our trained professionals immediately begin preparations for providing appropriate patriotic recognition. When we transport the veteran, we drape the stretcher with the American flag. This is our procedure whether the transfer is made under the careful scrutiny of a family member or quietly in the early morning hours from a hospital or other facility.
The Veteran’s Final March
When we accompany the veteran to his or her final resting place, the coach is identified with the flag of our country and the emblem of the veteran’s branch of service on the back and the side doors of the coach. For those who want a truly special march, a horse-drawn carriage carrying the veteran is a very popular choice.
Pallbearer Identification
Being called upon as a pallbearer is one of the most honorable duties that anyone could be asked to perform. It is the pallbearer who is the last to have contact with the deceased and accompanies the veteran to his or her final resting place.
If a veteran dies during active service, it is common for the military to provide servicemen or women to act as pallbearers for their brother or sister in arms. Thankfully, most deaths occur long after separation from the military. In these cases, the pallbearers are usually dressed in civilian attire. Therefore, we identify the pallbearers by providing each with a lapel pin of the American Flag as our gift to them in recognition of their service as the pallbearer for a veteran.
Patriots’ Walk
We are committed to showing a special level of recognition at the cemetery as well as at the funeral home. Prior to the arrival of the funeral procession, our cemetery staff prepares the site to receive the veteran. We install a double row of flags from the road where the coach will stop to the graveside, thus creating a Patriot’s Walk in honor of the veteran. The gravesite is also decorated with special draping for the chairs and lowering device. The burial site for a veteran at Gulf Pines Memorial Park is immediately recognized by all visitors as a very special burial that has been provided with optimal recognition of the veteran’s service to our country.
Honor Guard
In our community, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion Posts maintain a volunteer group of veterans to serve as an Honor Guard. These dedicated veterans will provide a final salute to a comrade and we will be honored to arrange that for you. We have numerous other options as well, ranging from the release of doves of peace, to the firing of cannons, to a horse drawn carriage and the playing of taps. It is our commitment to the community to create a meaningful, personal, customized, and respectful remembrance service for our heroes.
We Are Your Liaison for Veteran Benefits
We will take care of completing and filing all of the necessary paperwork to ensure that the family of a veteran receives any death benefits available.
Presidential Memorial Certificate
To orchestrate the celebration of the life and contributions of a veteran is a sincere honor for us. In recognition and commemoration of a veteran’s service, we request a certificate that thanks the serviceman or woman for his or her service to our country and is signed by the president of the United States. We procure one such certificate for the surviving spouse and each surviving child of a veteran. The certificate instantly becomes a treasured family keepsake in honor of the veteran.
We treasure the confidence families place in us and consider it a privilege to handle the final arrangements for their veteran. If you did not receive your Presidential Memorial Certificate when your veteran passed away, email us at info@kays-ponger.com or info@lemonbayfh.com and we will procure a complimentary certificate for you.
Flag Retirement Program
The flag of our nation should always be a strong, vivid symbol of our land and fly brightly in our minds. Our flag is a symbol of our people, our freedom, and our strength.
When it comes to the time when I am old and faded,
do not fly me in disrepair; rather retire me from my duties
only to replace me with a new flag so that I may continue to symbolize our country.
We have partnered with local veteran’s groups to collect retired flags and cremate them in the most dignified manner with a veteran. This is done with honor as part of our commitment to the men and women who fought under the flag of our country. If you would like to establish a Flag Retirement Program for your Veterans of Foreign Wars Post or American Legion Post, email us at info@kays-ponger.com or info@lemonbayfh.com.
We believe that no other organization provides the level of respect that Kays-Ponger & Uselton does in recognizing the service and patriotism of our American veterans.
If you are a veteran or are responsible for the celebration of a veteran’s life, you know that you can count on us to provide an unmatched level of respect and honor for a life unselfishly lived. Our family of funeral homes sets a standard for quality of service that is unparalleled in our community. We consider each call for a veteran’s tribute a true honor, and we thank you for your consideration.
