American Legion Honor Guard commander ends run after 27 years of funerals in W.Pa., beyond

Joseph Paradise has given military funeral honors to more than 3,000 veterans in Western Pennsylvania and beyond, no matter the weather.

At 93, the Penn Hills resident is finally ready to retire, save for his work as a school crossing guard at Long Road and Datura Drive. He’s stepping away as commander of the Monroeville American Legion Post 820 Honor Guard, a volunteer position he has held for about 10 years.

Before then, he served as honor guard commander at Post 980 in Plum, which he helped to found in 1979.

Altogether, he has commanded an honor guard unit for 27 years.

An Army veteran who served in the Korean War, Paradise said he has lived a “well-experienced life.”

To mark the occasion, Paradise was honored with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol. U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, presented him with the flag April 24 during a small gathering at the Verona Village Inn.

“One of the great things I get to do is meet constituents who do great things,” Deluzio said.

Pat Lanigan, director of Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, arranged the lunch. The group has frequently worked with Paradise to give honors to veterans passing through its funeral homes in East Pittsburgh and Turtle Creek.

Under federal legislation passed in 1999, all honorably discharged veterans without capital crimes on their records are entitled to military honors at their funerals. That includes a two-person uniformed detail, the playing of taps and a flag presentation.

Though honors were customarily provided before then, there was no legal requirement.

Paradise’s unit contributes to these ceremonies with a veteran’s prayer and five-gun salute. The unit consists of Paradise, five riflemen, a bugler and two other members.

That bill sparked a boom in volunteer honor guards, according to Lanigan.

“A lot of these groups that formed in the late ’90s, early 2000s … they’re all gone now,” Lanigan said.

Western Pennsylvania is down to about half a dozen groups in Monroeville, Plum, Greensburg, North Huntingdon and communities in the South Hills, according to Paradise. Some stay within a tight geographic area, while others, like the Monroeville unit, go wherever needed.

Veterans service organizations have grappled with declining membership for many years, a fact reflected in the Monroeville post’s honor guard, where five members have died in the past five years.

“I miss every one of them,” Paradise said. “We used to be buddies up at the Legion.”

Paradise has traveled across Western Pennsylvania to more cemeteries than he can name. He also has led honors in Ohio, New Jersey and West Virginia, where he helped to dedicate a flagpole at a flag-raising ceremony.

Afterward, he and two busloads of American Legion members were treated to a luncheon.

“I never had so much fun in my life,” Paradise said.

Lanigan praised Paradise’s dedication, recalling a frigid day a few years back in Good Shepherd Cemetery in Monroeville.

Paradise, using a walker and scheduled for heart surgery the next day, trekked through the snow to give a departed veteran their honors.

“He never wanted to say no to anybody,” Lanigan said.