thedrifter
01-02-07, 08:17 AM
Local Marine part of Ford's honor guard
By VICKY TAYLOR Staff writer
Chambersburg Public Opinion
Participating in the funeral of the late President Gerald Ford is something a Chambersburg Marine will always look back on as being a great honor.
"Not everyone can say they guarded the casket of a president," Lance Cpl. Philip Bietsch, son of Chambersburg police Sgt. Walter Bietsch and his wife Kathi, said in a telephone interview Monday night.
Bietsch, 21, is part of the honor guard that stood guard over Ford's casket in Palm Desert, California, before the late president's body was flown to Washington, D.C. for a state funeral.
He will again stand guard over the casket when it is taken to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan following a public funeral service at the National Cathedral this morning. In Grand Rapids, Bietsch will be part of the honor guard at the museum, where Ford will lay in state until his remains are moved to Grace Episcopal Church Wednesday afternoon for a private funeral service.
As a member of Bravo Company at the "8th & I" Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C., Bietsch has taken part in many military funerals since joining the Marines in 2004, and he considers it an honor to be able to provide that service to both fallen comrades and retired Marines being buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
His participation in the pomp and pageantry as the country lays to rest its 38th president is a special honor, however.
"It's definitely something to look back on someday and tell your children and grandchildren about," he said. "It is a great honor and I am very proud to do it."
Bietsch, a 2004 graduate of Chambersburg Area Senior High School, joined the Marines his senior year and was off to boot camp within three weeks of graduation. He went to Camp Geiger's infantry school in North Carolina after boot camp and from there was sent to Washington, D.C. to his present assignment.
In Washington, he performs in the "evening" and "sunset" parades at the barracks during the summer months and serves on the barracks "firing party" which honors fallen Marines by firing a 21-gun salute at their funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. He said there are times when he participates in 13 or 14 funerals a week, including those of retired Marines.
Marines usually get two year assignments in Washington, but Bietsch has been selected to stay another year, something that in itself is a reflection on his professionalism and devotion to duty.
"It (the extension of his D.C. assignment) says a lot about being a leader and being proficient at your job," he said.
Bietsch was following in his father's footsteps by going into the Marines.
"My father was my role model," he says of growing up in the Bietsch household as the son of a local policeman. "When I decided to go into the military instead of going right into college, I wanted the challenge and pride of being a Marine."
Bietsch has two older brothers: Tim, who went into the Army and spent seven months in Iraq and just finished college, and Matthew, who was also in the Army and was recently hired by the Chambersburg Police Department. He also has a sister, Sarah, a junior at Chambersburg Area Senior High School.
Although he has followed his father's footsteps by choosing to serve in the Marines, he said he does not plan right now to follow his father and brother into police service. Instead, he hopes to attend Penn State's Mont Alto campus when he gets out of the Marines and get a forestry degree, then transfer to that university's main campus and study wetlands biology.
Bietsch is engaged to Amanda Sick, daughter of Chambersburg elementary principal Paul Sick and Greta Sick, a Greencastle teacher. Amanda Sick is currently attending Temple University, where she is a music education major.
Ellie
By VICKY TAYLOR Staff writer
Chambersburg Public Opinion
Participating in the funeral of the late President Gerald Ford is something a Chambersburg Marine will always look back on as being a great honor.
"Not everyone can say they guarded the casket of a president," Lance Cpl. Philip Bietsch, son of Chambersburg police Sgt. Walter Bietsch and his wife Kathi, said in a telephone interview Monday night.
Bietsch, 21, is part of the honor guard that stood guard over Ford's casket in Palm Desert, California, before the late president's body was flown to Washington, D.C. for a state funeral.
He will again stand guard over the casket when it is taken to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan following a public funeral service at the National Cathedral this morning. In Grand Rapids, Bietsch will be part of the honor guard at the museum, where Ford will lay in state until his remains are moved to Grace Episcopal Church Wednesday afternoon for a private funeral service.
As a member of Bravo Company at the "8th & I" Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C., Bietsch has taken part in many military funerals since joining the Marines in 2004, and he considers it an honor to be able to provide that service to both fallen comrades and retired Marines being buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
His participation in the pomp and pageantry as the country lays to rest its 38th president is a special honor, however.
"It's definitely something to look back on someday and tell your children and grandchildren about," he said. "It is a great honor and I am very proud to do it."
Bietsch, a 2004 graduate of Chambersburg Area Senior High School, joined the Marines his senior year and was off to boot camp within three weeks of graduation. He went to Camp Geiger's infantry school in North Carolina after boot camp and from there was sent to Washington, D.C. to his present assignment.
In Washington, he performs in the "evening" and "sunset" parades at the barracks during the summer months and serves on the barracks "firing party" which honors fallen Marines by firing a 21-gun salute at their funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. He said there are times when he participates in 13 or 14 funerals a week, including those of retired Marines.
Marines usually get two year assignments in Washington, but Bietsch has been selected to stay another year, something that in itself is a reflection on his professionalism and devotion to duty.
"It (the extension of his D.C. assignment) says a lot about being a leader and being proficient at your job," he said.
Bietsch was following in his father's footsteps by going into the Marines.
"My father was my role model," he says of growing up in the Bietsch household as the son of a local policeman. "When I decided to go into the military instead of going right into college, I wanted the challenge and pride of being a Marine."
Bietsch has two older brothers: Tim, who went into the Army and spent seven months in Iraq and just finished college, and Matthew, who was also in the Army and was recently hired by the Chambersburg Police Department. He also has a sister, Sarah, a junior at Chambersburg Area Senior High School.
Although he has followed his father's footsteps by choosing to serve in the Marines, he said he does not plan right now to follow his father and brother into police service. Instead, he hopes to attend Penn State's Mont Alto campus when he gets out of the Marines and get a forestry degree, then transfer to that university's main campus and study wetlands biology.
Bietsch is engaged to Amanda Sick, daughter of Chambersburg elementary principal Paul Sick and Greta Sick, a Greencastle teacher. Amanda Sick is currently attending Temple University, where she is a music education major.
Ellie