The Meaning Behind Military Funeral Traditions

Maybe the service is a few days away, and you've started to wonder what will happen at the graveside. Or maybe you've just come home from one, still hearing the rifles and the bugle, with three brass shells in your coat pocket and no idea what they meant.

My husband was a Navy veteran. I know what it's like to watch a ceremony for someone you love and wish someone had explained it to you first.

So here is what each tradition means and where it came from, including which parts are history and which are stories people have added over the years. Knowing the meaning won't make the day easier. But it can help the ceremony feel like it belongs to your person.

Jump to: What every veteran receives · The flag · The casket team · The rifle volley · Shell casings · Taps · The folding · Presentation and salute · Rarer traditions · Traditions to ask for · On the headstone · Taking care of you

What Every Eligible Veteran Receives

The law guarantees the heart of it. Families of eligible veterans can ask for military funeral honors at no cost. At a minimum, that means at least two uniformed service members, and under Defense Department policy, at least one is from your veteran's own branch. They fold the flag, present it to the family, and play Taps.

Everything else depends. A rifle volley, uniformed pallbearers or a larger honor guard depend on who is available locally, often volunteers from veterans groups, and on the cemetery's rules. Your funeral director can tell you what to expect.

The Flag-Draped Casket

It began on the battlefield. Covering the fallen with the flag goes back to the Napoleonic Wars, when a flag covered the dead as they were carried from the field. Today it means the nation is honoring this person's service.

The blue field goes at the head, over your loved one's left shoulder. The flag is never lowered into the grave, so the honor guard lifts it away before burial.

With an urn, the flag usually arrives already folded. The honor guard unfolds it and holds it over the urn, and the ceremony goes on just as it would with a casket.

The Casket Team

Carrying one of their own. When uniformed pallbearers are part of the honors, they lift your person from the hearse and march to the graveside. There they unfold the flag and hold it taut over the casket or urn through the honors, until it's time to fold it.

If there's no casket team, family and friends carry instead. Uniformed pallbearers aren't part of the honors the law guarantees, so many services don't have them. Your funeral director can help you choose who will carry your person.

The Rifle Volley

Three volleys, not 21 guns. If your honor guard includes a rifle team, a small firing party fires three volleys of blanks. It's often mistaken for a 21-gun salute, which is a separate honor reserved for presidents and visiting heads of state.

It meant "the fallen are cared for." In older wars, both sides would pause the fighting to clear their dead. Three volleys signaled that the dead had been cared for and the fighting could go on. At a funeral today, it says the same thing: this one has been honored, and the duty is done.

Not every service has one. Some cemeteries limit volleys because of space, noise or fire rules, and some areas don't have a rifle team available. That takes nothing away from the honor.

It's loud and sudden. If children are coming, tell them ahead of time, and consider soft earplugs for little ones. Anyone startled by loud noises, including other veterans, may want to stand a little farther back. At a large national cemetery, you may also hear volleys from other funerals nearby.

The Shell Casings

Not every honor guard gives them. But many collect a few spent brass casings after the volley and tuck them into the folded flag or hand them to the family.

There's no single official meaning. You may hear that the three casings stand for duty, honor and country. Some Air Force honor guards say they stand for the Air Force core values: integrity, service and excellence. Others simply say they stand for the three volleys. Whatever words you're given, they mean your person was honored the way the military honors its own.

If you'd like them, ask your funeral director ahead of time whether the honor guard can save some for you. A small pouch or envelope keeps them safe in the flag case later.

Taps

It began as lights out. In July 1862, at Harrison's Landing in Virginia, Union General Daniel Butterfield and his bugler, Oliver Norton, reworked an older bugle call into the 24 notes we know. The name comes from the three drum taps that once signaled lights out.

It became a farewell that same summer. An officer couldn't safely fire the usual volleys so close to the enemy, so he had Taps sounded over a soldier's grave instead.

It means rest. Before it was a goodbye, it told tired soldiers their day was done. When there is a volley, Taps comes right after it, while the flag is still held over the casket. For more, see Taps at a Military Funeral.

The Folding

Thirteen folds, one triangle. After Taps, two members of the honor guard fold the flag 13 times, until only the blue field and stars show. The shape is said to recall the three-cornered hats of the American Revolution.

About the meaning of each fold. You may be given a script that gives every fold a meaning. Many families treasure it, but it isn't part of official military ceremony. You can have it read, choose other words, or let the folding happen in silence. For more, see The Flag at a Military Funeral.

The Presentation and Final Salute

The same words, every branch. A member of your veteran's branch offers the folded flag to the next of kin "on behalf of the President of the United States," their branch, and a grateful nation.

Then the salute. The honor guard salutes the flag together. It's a gesture between those who served, saying your person was one of them. You don't have to do anything in return.

Traditions You May See Less Often

The caisson and the riderless horse. At Arlington National Cemetery, some eligible service members are carried on a horse-drawn caisson, a wagon that once hauled artillery. For Army and Marine Corps colonels and above, a riderless horse may follow with boots turned backward in the stirrups, a sign that the rider will never ride again. Since 2025, the caisson has been limited to a small number of funerals each week, so even at Arlington it isn't promised.

The missing man flyover. Aircraft fly over in formation, and one pulls up and away, leaving a gap. The plane that leaves stands for the person who has died. A flyover isn't part of standard funeral honors. Each branch decides who qualifies, mostly people who died while serving, especially aviators. For anyone else, a family can ask the branch's mortuary affairs office for an exception, but it isn't promised. Military OneSource explains each branch's flyover rules and how to ask. In some areas, volunteer civilian pilots offer memorial flyovers too, so it's worth asking the cemetery.

The battlefield cross. A rifle standing in a pair of boots, with a helmet on top and dog tags hanging from it. It began as a way to mark where a soldier fell, so the body could be found and brought home. Today you'll mostly see it at memorial services for service members who died while serving, where it lets their unit say goodbye. You may also see it on memorial cards and in tributes.

Traditions Your Family Can Ask For

A Patriot Guard flag line. If you see a line of people holding American flags as you arrive, often with motorcycles nearby, they're probably the Patriot Guard Riders. The volunteer group began in Kansas in 2005 to shield grieving families from protesters. Today they stand flag lines and escort processions to honor veterans, but only when the family invites them. There is no cost. You or your funeral director can request them through PatriotGuard.org.

A branch hymn or song. Many Navy families choose the Navy Hymn, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," which has long been played at funerals for people who served at sea. Each branch also has an official song: "The Army Goes Rolling Along," "The Marines' Hymn," "Anchors Aweigh" for the Navy, "The U.S. Air Force," "Semper Paratus" for the Coast Guard and "Semper Supra" for the Space Force. Families often play it as a recessional or at a celebration of life.

Eight bells. On ships, a bell marked each half hour of a four-hour watch, and eight bells meant the watch was over. Sailors still honor their dead with eight bells, meaning their watch has ended. If your veteran served at sea, you can ask whether someone could ring eight bells during the service, or put the words "Eight Bells" in the program.

What You May Find on the Headstone

Coins. By tradition, each coin left on a veteran's headstone says something different:

• A penny means someone visited.
• A nickel means they went through boot camp together.
• A dime means they served together.
• A quarter means they were there when your person died.

Coins left at national and state veterans cemeteries are generally collected and used for upkeep or to help bury veterans in need.

Challenge coins. These are small medallions with a unit's insignia. Fellow service members sometimes leave one to say, "I served with you, and I remember."

Small stones. Leaving a pebble is a Jewish custom of remembrance, and many visitors of other faiths now leave one at veterans' graves instead of flowers.

If you leave something yourself, know that national cemeteries allow fresh flowers, but may remove other items that get in the way of mowing or upkeep. VA national cemeteries usually hold removed items for about 30 days so families can claim them. Still, don't leave anything you couldn't bear to lose.

Taking Care of You

You don't have to remember any of this on the day. If it helps, ask a friend to read this beforehand and stand beside you, ready to whisper what comes next. And if a moment you didn't expect is the one that undoes you, let it.

When You're Ready for the Program

A few lines about the honors in the program help guests understand what they're seeing. Our free Military Honors at the Service page has wording you can copy right in. Our Military & Patriotic templates have room for their branch and years of service, and you can edit them in Canva.

More Help

• Step-by-Step: What Happens at a Military Funeral
• Military Funeral Honors: Who Qualifies and How to Arrange Them
• Taps at a Military Funeral: What It Means and What to Expect
• The Flag at a Military Funeral: What It Means and What to Expect
• Personalizing a Military Funeral While Honoring Tradition
• Original Poems for a Military Veteran's Funeral Program

Please note: This is general information, not legal or benefits advice. Customs vary by branch, honor guard and cemetery. For your family's situation, please check with your funeral director, the cemetery, the VA (800-827-1000), or an accredited Veterans Service Officer. Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1; text 838255; or chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net. In an emergency, call 911.

With care,
C. Lindorfer, Noted & Charmed