Dismissed honor guardsman to challenge firing

By The Associated Press

01.27.03

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TRENTON, N.J. — A former honor guardsman says his practice of offering graveside religious blessings at a veterans cemetery won the appreciation of grieving families but cost him his job.

Now Patrick Cubbage, a Vietnam combat veteran and evangelical Christian from Philadelphia, has decided to challenge his dismissal.

The Rutherford Institute, a legal organization that handles religious-rights cases, said Jan. 24 it would represent Cubbage. The Charlottesville, Va.-based nonprofit does not charge for its services.

It was one of three such organizations to contact Cubbage after his story first appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer last week.

"It's obvious that he did the right thing and was fired for the wrong reason," said attorney John Whitehead, the institute's president.

Whitehead said Cubbage did not "depart from standard presentation protocol" — the reason given for his dismissal — because the guidelines allow family members to request blessings at veterans' funerals.

The institute intends to discuss a settlement first, Whitehead said. He declined to give details of what Cubbage was seeking, but said he hoped the state would revise guidelines to make certain they are clear.

A message left at the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs was not immediately returned.

For a year, Cubbage earned $16 an hour as a part-time honor guard member at the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in North Hanover. He estimates he worked between 25 and 30 hours a week, and participated in about 2,000 burial services.

As he presented folded flags to Army veterans' families, he said "God bless you and this family, and God bless the United States of America."

After another honor guard member complained, a supervisor told Cubbage in mid-October not to refer to God. Cubbage pointed to the protocol he received when he started the job, which said the blessing should be used if families expressed a religious preference.

Cubbage said he used the blessing when he had an indication of a family's preference, such as prayers or the presence of clergy.

"I said to him, 'Well it shows right on the protocol that this is what you're supposed to do.' And he said, 'Well it might offend someone,' " said Cubbage, 54, of Philadelphia.

According to Cubbage, his supervisor also said other honor guard members did not want to use the blessing.

"I said, 'If they don't want to say God bless you, that's on them. I'm going to follow the protocol,' " Cubbage said.

But Cubbage agreed to use the blessing only if a family specifically requested it. At the end of the month, the son of a deceased veteran approached him and did just that.

"When I presented the flag, I saluted, I stood back and I said, 'God bless you and this family, and God bless the United States of America," Cubbage said.

Another member of the honor guard reported Cubbage, and he was fired.

Cubbage said he was unable to find another job because applications asked whether he had been fired in the last five years.

Since his story appeared in the Inquirer, Cubbage said he has fielded at least 100 phone calls from well-wishers in states as far away as California and Utah.

"We're one nation under God," Cubbage said. "You're going to tell me millions and millions of people can't have God present with them because one person might be offended? That's ludicrous."