 On a cool spring afternoon, a small band of men gather together to honor and say farewell to a fellow brother-in-arms. I feel real special doing it because it's only a few people that gets to do this job in the Army and I'm one of the few. In 2000, Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Bill, providing military funeral honors for all eligible veterans. Every person who's been honorably discharged from the military is owed the right of having two soldiers of their branch of service perform at the very minimum, the playing of taps and the folding of the American flag. Prior to 2000, it was not always that way. Used to be there were areas that it was cocked retirement, you had to be retired, you had to be service-connected death in order to get this team to come out here. Now an honorable discharge does the job and I think it's one of the best things that the military has done in the past 20 years. Mark McMurray, himself a highly decorated Army veteran of the Vietnam War, and also a funeral director truly understands how much the veterans' families appreciate the honors. Oh, they love it. They just think it's the greatest thing. Well, it is. It is wonderful. It is wonderful. This whole thing, I believe in it. My children and my grandchildren were here and they have learned how we respect our dead in this country and how our military respects our dead in this country. Sherry Geiser's first cousin, Master Sergeant Robert Stein, was killed in the Korean War over 60 years ago. His remains were identified this year and returned home. The respect and the awe and the love and the concern and that's the best of humanity. I think it's one of the highlights of saying goodbye. It's not just the cemetery. It's not just the closure of a minister. But here is the country standing up and saying, thank you. Members of the Illinois National Guard's honor detail have paid respect to thousands of soldiers in the past few years, including three generations of my family. Reporting from Fort Sheridan Cemetery in Highwood, Illinois, I'm Army Sergeant First Class Daniel Simmons.