I am not really sure - I will have to research it - but I know they said that his funeral was a lot of "firsts" The first they'd ever had bagpipes and actually the first that they used a military like formation and they practiced it and practiced it b/c they knew that they wanted to do it right and for John/Phred they HAD better do it right b/c he ran a very tight ship!
Carrie and I were talking to the Chief and we said "this is our first Fireman's funeral like this we'd never seen it before" And he said "yea ours too" chuckled and walked out the door. Well, I thought he was joking but in talking to Joan it WAS true. They had never done it in formation quite like that before. The back of the church was lined with about 20 firemen all in their dress blues and they stood with military precision. When stories were being told, and I told about my LA Firemen story the crowd was laughing and chuckling but none of the firemen cracked a smile, but as he was escorted down the aisle at the church several of them either had tears in their eyes or had tears running down their faces. The young girl that carried his helmet down the aisle ahead of the casket was quite emotional. He had sooooo many people that loved him.