In mid-year of 2003 Fire Chief Rick McIntyre of the Jacksonville Fire Department came to Driver Operator II John Romero with the idea of an honor guard.  John started looking for ways to find information on honor guards. The chief left a small manual of honor guard methods with him. Through information gained from the book and the amazing knowledge of the internet, John began to form our guard. He had to write an SOG/SOP, and started looking for training, uniforms, and personnel. John met with the Chief McIntyre in May of 2005 and that was our beginning of the guard. John was the first commander of the guard. Our first detail, fitting enough, was the 9/11 Remembrance Service at a beam from the New York attacks, on the Beirut Memorial grounds. That was a proud day for us to show respect to our fallen brothers and sisters in the emergency service.  After the honor guard detail, we lost some of the original guardsmen, but we marched on. It was another proud day to go to Raleigh for the first time on May 5, 2006. We were ready for anything…..we thought. In the color/honor guard information meeting, we were told “We’re going to do this like Emmitsburg does it”. What was Emmitsburg? Well that was a learning experience. The next year we had changes. John stepped down as commander and we were asked to lead the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Memorial parade in May of 2007. That was a big honor for a newly formed Jacksonville Honor Guard.  Captain Kevin Davis was asked to lead the guard as commander of the guard. Our next big trip was …..That’s right the Emmitsburg trip. We sent four guardsmen to Emmitsburg in October of that same year. Over the years we have to thank people along the way like: The Woodmen of the World Insurance for donating our marching flags, City of Jacksonville, Jones Funeral Home for two practice casket flags and Fire Chief Rick McIntyre for his support. The details that we have done are because of their direct support, for that we say……… thanks.
Commander
Captain Davis