Volunteer Team of Retired Marines Performs Up to 9 Ceremonies A Day

RIVERSIDE: Always faithful, Marine vets serve at national cemetery funerals 
A volunteer team of retired Marines performs as many as nine ceremonies a day.
Press Enterprise
BY JEBB HARRIS / CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Published: July 27, 2015c

Staff Sgt. Robert "Bob" Dugan, 90, escorts Alyssa Fitzpatrick of Hemet to the memorial for her Marine father and wife at Riverside National Cemetery.
JEBB HARRIS, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Memorial Day comes a few times a month for Staff Sgt. Robert “Bob” Dugan. He rises early, puts on his Marine Corps dress blues and drives his pickup from his Costa Mesa home to Riverside National Cemetery.

At 90, Dugan is the oldest and most highly decorated of the volunteers of the honor detail team Semper Fi No. 1. He’s one of a crew of Marine veterans, from all over Southern California, who gather at the cemetery to provide a proper military service for their brothers and sisters.

With the passing of so many World War II and Korean War veterans, and the increase in casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan, there was a time when memorial services for some veterans amounted to a presenting of a folded flag and a recording of taps. Funding was short, and not enough troops were available to properly honor the dead.
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