CAMP SMITH, N.Y. - Six New York Army National Guard Soldiers wearing Army Combat Uniform with white gloves march forward in three abreast formation and execute a right turn into two columns.
Staff Sgt. Kyle King is watching.
"Do it again," King tells them. "I said five steps then right." They return to their starting point and repeat the movement. "Stop. Do it again, " King says.
Over on the other side of the drill hall, another team of Soldiers is doing the same thing, watched by other sets of expert eyes.
It's day four of the New York Army National Guard's five-day Honor Guard Academy class here. The 15 students have been practicing the three-man flag fold, firing party routinesand casket carries for military funerals for 36 hours.
Then they've spent time after hours making sure their Army Service Uniforms are spotless and reviewed what they learned that day.
The goal for King and the other three instructors, said Staff Sgt. Erwin Dominguez, the Honor Guard non-commissioned officer in charge, is nothing less than perfection when it comes to funeral duties.
" Everything gets fine tuning. Everything is precise. Everything is perfect," Dominguez said.
"What we are really looking for in every funeral is perfection," he added. "We only have one time to do funerals and that time better count. It can't be anything less than perfect."
The New York Army National Guard's 27 full-time Honor Guard Soldiers, headquartered at eight locations around New York, provide military funeral honors for any American who ever served in the Army as mandated by federal law.
The ceremony must include the folding and presenting of the flag of the United States to the veteran's survivors and the playing of Taps. Two Soldiers provide this service.
In 2014 the New York Honor Guards provided funeral services for 9,567 families, most of them the basic service.
In most cases these were two-Soldier funerals. But in the case of retired military members or Soldiers who died on active duty, modified full military honors is the standard. That requires seven Soldiers and involves a firing party and casket carrying detail and three Soldiers folding the flag.
The modified full honors funeral service, and the choreography involved in doing it well, is the core subject material taught during this five-day training period, said King, a member of the 2nd Battalion 108th Infantry who works in the Honor Guard's Rochester office.
"They are here Monday through Friday and you have packed a lot of stuff into a five-day week," King said.
The Honor Guard members work on the rituals of removing the casket from a hearse, folding the flag back from the end of the casket precisely as it is carried to the graveside, and keeping the casket level as six Soldiers carry it.
They learn how to assume their positions as bugler, firing party, and flag-folding detail seamlessly as the funeral unfolds.
"You have to have that eye for detail; attention to detailed small stuff is what is important here. If somebody makes the wrong movement it throws everything off," King said.
"it is a lot of repetition. You want to get that muscle memory," he added.
"Forty hours is not that long to accomplish the mission," said Sgt. James Barton, a member of the Honor Guard for two years and a student at this academy said describing the training.
"It takes a lot of intense dedication. We are up late trying to get stuff done, the member of the 222nd Military Police Company, who works out of the Honor Guard's Horseheads office, said.
By the time the Soldiers come to the Honor Guard Academy, they've already been through a week-long training period and have performed military funerals, Dominquez said.
Soldiers joining the Honor Guard program, either on a full-time or part-time basis, go through three days of training the basic movements and requirements of the two-Soldier military funeral at their Honor Guard area office.
Then they spend two days assisting a seasoned instructor, before they are sent out with other junior enlisted Soldiers to represent the United States Army at a funeral, Dominquez said.
All Soldiers learn basic drill and ceremonies in basic training, but the Honor Guard training is often about unlearning what the Soldiers already know, Dominquez said.
"We do things a little bit different than basic training," Dominquez said. "Their left face is different from our left face. So we try to get some of that muscle memory out of them."
Honor Guard drill movements are more precise and more stylized than standard drill, he explained. The flag-folding ritual is also more precise, he added.
Spc. Dana Kelly, a member of the 442nd Military Police Company from Seldon, who has been serving with the Honor Guard's Long Island office since the spring of 2014, said she enjoyed refining the skills involved in the more complex funeral service.
"I'm a big hooah, hooah Honor Guard Person," Kelly said. "I like knowing that they are going really hard on us to make sure we do it perfect, because we don't want to be out there messing up."
Pvt. Richard Blount, a member of D Co. 3rd Battalion 142nd Aviation, who also works in the Long Island office, said the class had helped him refine his skills as an Honor Guard member.
Blount, who's served with the Honor Guard program since November, 2014, said he joined because he liked the full-time military life style. He serves in the military full-time as an Honor Guard member and a drilling Guard Soldier, Blount said.
Serving on the Honor Guard is a privilege, Blount said. "It is not something everybody gets to say they have done in their Army career and to get to do it full time makes it that much better," he explained.
One of the things that really distinguishes the New York Army National Guard Honor Guard program is the amount of responsibility given to junior enlisted Soldiers, said Major Bryon Linnehan, the Honor Guard Officer-in-Charge. A funeral team normally consists of a sergeant or specialist and a private.
"This is an opportunity for them to operate independently with very high expectations. They are successful and it is great to see them do that," Linnehan said.
Serving on the Honor Guard has been incredibly rewarding, Kelly said.
"I personally think, as a Soldier, that you should be there to recognize all those who have served, " she said. "I think it is the most honorable thing to be there and be part of the families' last moments with their loved one."