EMS Directors

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Dear Emergency Services Director,

The Minnesota EMS Honor Guard was formed to provide a service that has been absent in our profession for years.  That service is a FULL HONORS Funeral for an EMS Provider who has made the ultimate sacrifice, and was killed in the Line Of Duty.  If the family requests a full honors funeral, we are here to assist the family and you in preparing to HONOR this individual.

As soon as we are notified, an advance team will sit down with you and the family to work out all the logistics involved in this type of funeral.  When a member of the EMS Community has given their life in the performance of their duties: not only does the EMS Community throughout the state want to honor them, so does the Community they served, as well as Law Enforcement and the Fire Services will want to pay their respects.  The logistics to coordinate this type of funeral is overwhelming for anyone to plan who has not done this before.  The Minnesota EMS Honor Guard is trained and ready to provide a service to honor the individual, and it will allow you and your department to focus on healing together.

The family may be entitled to several benefits from both the Federal and State government.  The Honor Guard has trained personnel to assist the family in filing these forms.  Enclosed you will find an Emergency Notification form.  We recommend that you ask ALL of your employees to fill out and return this form to you.  Please keep the forms on hand in a location that can be accessed by you and your representative.  We further recommend that this form be reviewed annually for any changes that need to be made.  It will help the family and you know the wishes of the employee.

You will also find the Ambulance Directors checklist.  The checklist is a guideline of events that need to be followed and have been established to assist you in this process.  You may feel free to modify this checklist in any way that will work for your department.  Once the Honor Guard has been notified a representative will call you.  Once the advance team arrives at your department, we will begin to arrange for the Line Of Duty Funeral that your employee is entitled to.

We truly hope that the need for this never arises.  But, in the event it does: these forms and the Honor Guard are here to assist you and the family through this tragic time.

Sincerely,

John Meyer

Executive Officer

Minnesota EMS Honor Guard

 Mourning Band Policy

A. LODD
      1. Upon the line of duty death of an active duty EMS personnel in your
department; the mourning band will be worn for a period of thirty (30)
days from the date of death.
     2. Upon the Line of Duty Death of a public safety officer from the seven (7)
County Metro Region or affiliated agency; the mourning band will be
worn from the date of death and removed at midnight the night of the
funeral.
     3. In the event of a Line of Duty death of an EMT in the state of Minnesota
mourning band will be worn from the date of death and removed at
midnight the night of the funeral.
     4. In the event of any a Line of Duty Death of Firefighter/Law Enforcement
Officer in the state of Minnesota mourning band will be worn from
midnight to midnight the day of the funeral.
     5. Mourning band will be worn from midnight to midnight the day of the
National EMS Memorial Service.
     6. Mourning band can be worn at the direction of EMS Agency
Management when special circumstances dictate that a department
display of official mourning is appropriate.

B. Non-LODD
     1. Death of current active duty employee; mourning band will be worn
from the date of death until midnight the night of the funeral.
     2. Death of a retired employee; mourning band will be worn from midnight
to midnight the day of the funeral.
     3. Death of employee family member; mourning band will not be worn.

Minnesota EMS Honor Guard

P.O Box 364 Forest Lake, MN 55025 , https://mnemshonorguard.com/

Report a Line of Duty Death please call 612-347-5710

Report a Non-Line of Duty Death please call 507-236-4291

Shawn Stoermann, Commander, Cell Phone: 507-236-4291