[Woodcarver] RE: [woodcarvingfun] To all Retired Military (Chat)

[Tom Pierce]

Here is the official word from the Department of Defense:

Graveside military honors include the firing of three volleys each by seven service members. This commonly is confused with an entirely separate honor, the 21-gun salute. But the number of individual gun firings in both honors evolved the same way. 

The three volleys came from an old battlefield custom. The two warring sides would cease hostilities to clear their dead from the battlefield, and the firing of three volleys meant that the dead had been properly cared for and the side was ready to resume the battle. 

Tom "Old Age Is Not For Sissies" Pierce
Bellevue, Nebraska
mailto:tompierce at cox.net
My Web Page http://www.carvertools.com/tpierce 
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