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This item claiming that the Department of Defense has changed military funeral protocol to remove references to the President of the United States when the burial flag is presented to a deceased veteran's next of kin is erroneous. Example: [Collected via e-mail, September 2011] As of 17 April 2012, the Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum standardizing the verbiage to be used when presenting the American flag during a military funeral service as follows: Even before that memorandum was issued, this item was false on a number of counts: The suggested wording in the U.S. Army's Drill and Ceremonies field manual (distributed in 2012) neither includes, nor recently removed, specific references to the President of the United States or the Secretary of Defense in the flag presentation portion of a military funeral: The U.S. Navy's Military Funerals reference manual (last revised in 1999) likewise offers suggested wording that neither includes, nor recently removed, specific references to the President of the United States or the Secretary of Defense: The U.S. Marine Corps' Drill and Ceremonies manual continues to reference the President of the United States in its suggested wording for flag presentation portion of a military funeral: A Marine Corps order of 1 March 2011 offers an alternate wording which also mentions the President of the United States According to a news account from 94th Airlift Wing Public Affairs, as of mid-February 2012 the U.S. Air Force still referenced the President of the United States during the flag presentation portion of its military funerals:
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