Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Travers, of Somerset, Mass., top and foreground above, along with Staff Sgt. Jose Loureiro, of Pawtucket, and Sgt. Melissa Jones, of Warwick, deliver final honors to fellow Marine Carlo M. LoChiatto.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

BOURNE, Mass. — The two Marines stood in familiar positions, flanking a flag-draped casket.

Staff Sgt. Jose Loureiro was on the left side. Sgt. Melissa Jones was on the right. A third Marine, Lance Cpl. Robert Travers, waited a few steps away.

They came to Massachusetts National Cemetery yesterday to bury one of their own. That is their mission.

Loureiro, Jones and Travers are members of a Marine Corps burial detail. They are part of the General Support Motor Transport Company of the 6th Motor Transport Battalion, a reserve unit headquartered in Providence.

They didn’t ask to join a burial detail. It’s one of the tasks of the company.

Every active Marine and Marine veteran who has been honorably discharged is entitled to a Marine burial. If a family member calls the headquarters in Quantico, Va., of the Marine Corps Casualty Branch (motto: “Taking Care of Our Own”), a burial detail in the appropriate region will be assigned to the ceremony.

The Providence company’s burial detail is made up of 10 Marines. Its territory covers Southern New England. Members provide military honors at burials as far north as the Boston suburbs, east to Provincetown, on Cape Cod, and south and west to Connecticut.

They attend three to five burials a week on average. So far this year, they’ve appeared at about 160 ceremonies.

Loureiro, 35, of Pawtucket, is in charge of the burial detail. Tall with a shaved head, he has been a part of the detail since 2002 and has lost count of how many burials he has attended, perhaps a thousand or more.

He is no longer on active duty, but has taken a leave from his job as a federal correctional officer in Massachusetts to work full time for the Marine Corps Reserves. The corps is inundated with requests for burials, and he has been assigned to help manage the overload.

He describes what the burial detail does with solemnity.

“Because we do this every day, it might seem just like a job, but it’s not a job,” he said. “To me, every day you are dealing with family, and you are dealing with people’s feelings. … This is the last memory of their family member.”

Loureiro received the orders for yesterday’s burial last week. Carlo M. LoChiatto, an 80-year-old Marine veteran who served in China during World War II, would be honored. He died Nov. 4 at home in North Falmouth, Mass., after a long illness.

He lived a full life, with a 48-year marriage, three children and his own business, yet his two-year stint in the Marines, which he joined at 17, defined who he was.

“Once a Marine, always a Marine,” his widow, Phyllis, said.

Three Marines typically perform services at a burial. There may be more when a high-ranking officer is buried. Sometimes their number will be supplemented by soldiers in the National Guard. But yesterday it was just Loureiro, Jones and Travers.

They arrived at the company headquarters overlooking the Providence River at 8:30 a.m., three hours before LoChiatto’s burial. They welcomed each other with “Happy Birthday,” a tradition on the anniversary of the Marine Corps’ founding. Yesterday, the corps celebrated its 233rd year.

After changing into their dress blues, Travers, 22, of Somerset, went outside to get the van ready that would take them to Bourne, while Loureiro and Jones went through the ceremony. Jones, 25, of Warwick, practiced folding the American flag under Loureiro’s direction.

“Nice and tight. That’s most important,” Loureiro said as he watched her make the creases.

Jones, a Florida native, has been part of the burial detail for two years, but she is still conscious of every detail.

“Little things,” she said. “They make us better.”

It was time to go. Jones wiped a speck of dust from the brim of her hat with a white glove. She and Loureiro straightened their jackets in a mirror as they headed out the door.

They arrived at the cemetery an hour early. A burial detail from the Air Force waited ahead of them to perform a ceremony in the pavilion.

The number of burials can sometimes weigh on Loureiro and the other members of his detail. They didn’t expect to do this when they joined the Marines, but they all call it an honor.

They were trained as truck drivers, says Travers, though Loureiro prefers to describe their occupation as “motor vehicle operator.” It’s more than just driving trucks, he says. The members of the unit must protect supply vehicles and manage logistics.

Jones and Travers have each done a tour of duty in Iraq, where they worked to bring supplies and weapons in safely from Kuwait using 5- and 7-ton trucks. Loureiro has done two tours in Iraq doing similar work.

Because Loureiro is head of the detail, he tries to go to all the burials that are assigned. He wears his dress blues so often that, he remarks, he needs new ones.

“It’s just so many,” he said. “As long as we’re there, we try to make the burial honors as special as possible. But then we have to move on.”

The Air Force burial was under way. As a bugler played taps, Loureiro saluted on the road above the pavilion.

Before LoChiatto’s family arrived, the Marines walked through the ceremony one final time, coordinating their steps and marking where they would stop to salute.

As the hearse arrived, Jones and Loureiro stood at attention on either side of the path into the pavilion. The casket was wheeled in between them followed by dozens of mourners.

A priest spoke, and Travers played a recording of taps from a bugle with a speaker hidden inside its bell.

Loureiro and Jones removed the American flag from the casket and folded it in half lengthwise. Jones meticulously folded it into a crisp triangle, nothing visible but white stars on a blue background. She made the final tuck, smoothed any wrinkles and placed the flag in Loureiro’s hands.

As ranking officer, he was entrusted with giving it to Phyllis LoChiatto.

“On behalf of the president and the Marine Corps, please accept this flag as a token of the faithful service of a loved one to a grateful nation,” he said. “Semper fidelis.”

LoChiatto thanked him after he spoke the last two words, the Marine Corps motto, which is Latin for “Always Faithful.”

Loureiro saluted her, spun around and then saluted the casket. Head bowed, he placed a gloved hand on the casket and held it there for a moment.

He and Jones led the procession back to the hearse. Joined by Travers, they saluted as the mourners climbed back into their cars and drove past. A cold breeze blew autumn leaves around their polished shoes.

The Marines had yet to be assigned their next burial, but they knew the wait wouldn’t be long.

akuffner@projo.com