A one-shot deal: Jerry Vaughan honors veterans’ last wishes nationwide 

Three loud bangs from the ceremonial rifle volley echoed through Cape Canaveral National Cemetery as Jerry Vaughan watched the honors detail for Julius W. Thompson Jr. in late March of 2021. He accepted the folded flag at the end; Thompson Jr. was the last of his kin.

“He’s Marines, I’m Navy, we’re long-lost cousins,” Vaughan said.

“Please accept this flag on behalf of a grateful nation,” the military honor guardsman told Vaughan as they handed him the folded flag. He wasn’t sure what he would do with the blue field of stars in his hands until he saw the nurses who took care of Thompson Jr. before his passing.

“I had a feeling I was going to turn it over to the nurses simply because they acted like his family for the last year and a half of his life,” Vaughan added. “And then after I noticed how they were looking at me a little bit, that just solidified my decision.”

Thompson Jr. was Vaughan’s first recreated uniform, and the beginning of his journey as the leader of The Dover Detail. The organization is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit helping veterans and their families receive accurate, recreated uniforms — mostly for burial.

Vaughan, a Chuluota native, said he started the organization because he received military items through Down The Road Thrift, his nonprofit thrift store providing for homeless veterans.

Vaughan said he’s shipped over 190 uniforms nationwide, from The Virgin Islands to California. He does not charge the families or ask them for anything in return.

“That man or that woman earned the right to wear that uniform,” Vaughan said. “They absolutely deserve to be buried in it, and money should not be the obstacle.”

Vaughan highlighted the monetary challenges families face when dealing with the death of a veteran and buying their uniform.

He said that before any of his stitching begins, a brand-new, undecorated uniform from Vanguard Industries, where he buys them, costs around $2,000 altogether. A Marine Corps officer ceremonial black leather belt is $287; it’s coupled with a trouser stripe and 24-karat gold buckle and tip, which increases the total cost to $342.60. Alongside the other items, like buttons, neckties and patches that are sold separately, the total costs skyrocket quickly.

Vaughan said the financial challenges of burying a loved one often leads to the family opting for a closed casket ceremony.

“And the thing of it is, this is a one-shot deal,” Vaughan said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. When a family wants to honor their vet with a uniform, and they have nowhere else to turn, they feel like they failed.”

Vaughan’s services help solve one of the many financial challenges a family can face, and honor the last wish of veterans who want to be buried in their uniforms.

A call, and a weight lifted

Patricia Blackwell drove from surplus store to surplus store in Missouri, scrambling to find military dress blues for her father, who passed away on Feb. 2. Empty handed and exhausted after two days of searching, Blackwell said “it was a big relief,” when the living facility her father called home since August 2025, Cameron Veterans Home, connected her with Vaughan.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god,’ I called that man, and it was like a weight was lifted,” Blackwell said. “I mean, my dad’s gonna get what he wanted, you know? Jerry put things together pretty quickly.”

Joseph Castro, Blackwell’s father, served as a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. Blackwell said he enlisted in 1951, standing a post for security and monitoring potential threats to his base in the Korean War. Castro returned home in 1953 when the war ended.

Her father’s sudden passing meant a quick uniform reconstruction timeline for Vaughan, as the family buried Castro on Feb. 12.

A mission in double-time

Burial uniforms jump to the top of Vaughan’s list because there is a hard deadline to meet. Vaughan said, “the blinders are on until the uniform’s done,” and he only stops when he’s waiting for items.

When he’s laser-focused, Vaughan is organized and precise. He keeps military items organized in bins and drawers, and searches up other uniforms for reference to know what he has to grab from his collection.

Then there’s that ever-so-important contact with members of the same military branch to guide Vaughan on the branch-specific details he doesn’t know.

“The last thing you want to do is think that you know it all,” Vaughan added. “Then when you put something on a uniform that doesn’t belong, and somebody catches it at the funeral, it ruins the whole thing for everybody.”

Several people review Vaughan’s finished work to ensure the details are accurate before shipping it to the receiving family. These helpers are Vaughan’s friends, who have served in the military as well. Vinnie Howard checks over the Marines, Lt. Col. Gary Miller and a funeral director at North Brevard Funeral Home review the Army.

“Early on, I would take the complete army uniform to his funeral home where he was working, and we would go back to one of the counseling rooms, and just lay the whole thing out,” Vaughan said. “He put the whole thing together and [would] be done with it. I also took the time to have him train me and show me where particular things go and how things are put together, so I have a better knowledge of it.”

Vaughan’s network of helpers make recreating burial uniforms accurately a reality for many families, like the Blackwells, who are in need of fulfilling their veteran’s last wish.

After Vaughan sent Blackwell a picture of Castro’s completed uniform, she sent it to her family.  She said they all cried when they saw it.

“Oh my god,” Blackwell said, pausing for a moment. “There are no words to explain how my family felt. After I sent [the picture] to my other two siblings, we all lost it because we realized my dad’s going to have what he wanted.”

The highest-ranking, most intricate uniform Vaughan has recreated

One of the most intricate uniforms Vaughan has recreated was for Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Alex G. Middleton, with over 28 years of experience.

Vaughan said Master Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Rivera helped him with the logistical information for an accurate recreation.

“You can’t go wrong because he’s another master gun,” Vaughan added. “He’s not going to go with a subpar performance on how to do this if he’s the same rank. So, it meant a lot.”

Rivera and Vaughan connected through Howard, a mutual friend, and they are all a part of The Brevard County Detachment 513-Marine Corps League. The Marine Corps league is for honorably discharged Marines and FMF-qualified Navy personnel.

Howard, a Rockledge native, provided another helping hand for Vaughan’s most intricate uniform. Vaughan said his friend is a Marine Corps memorabilia collector, and his collection had the high-ranking belt buckle needed to represent Middleton’s position in the Marine Corps.

Howard said he donated the belt buckle — which would’ve cost $70 if it needed to be bought brand new — and is always willing to help his friend serve families in need.

“Whatever is in my museum, Jerry has full access to,” Howard said. “Whatever he needs, I’ll see if I have it. I’m humbly honored to use it for whatever need arises.”

After completing Middleton’s uniform (and before sending it to the receiving family in Savannah, Ga.), Vaughan said he presented the finished product at the Orlando Bunker during Vietnam Veterans Remembrance Weekend.

Vaughan’s new mission: putting burial uniforms into law

Although Vaughan has spent several years recreating over 190 uniforms for veterans and their families, he said he’s working with U.S. Rep. Cory Mills of Florida’s 7th congressional district to pass the Last Salute Bill. 

Vaughan posted about the bill on Facebook the following morning after attending Mills’ town hall in Oviedo on Jan. 29. The bill, if passed, would make the burial uniforms for veterans part of the burial benefit and the government covers the cost.

“I’m not pushing a person, I am pushing a position in Congress that can help get this passed,” Vaughan said. “That’s what we need. We need public support on the ground level, people that are going to show up to the polls and vote.”

The Last Salute Bill would shift uniform recreation responsibilities from Vaughan to the government. Vaughan has spent the past several years working to honor a veteran’s last wishes, but he said he’d love for the government to provide for the families in need.

“The responsibility doesn’t belong to us out here in the private world,” Vaughan added. “It belongs with them [the government]. And since Corey [Mills] is part of that machine up there, he’s a battle-tested veteran.”

A long road to Dover

Next month will mark Vaughan’s fifth anniversary of recreating uniforms for veterans and their families to honor their loved one’s last wish.

Vaughan’s journey started in 1985, when he enlisted in the Navy at 18. He worked as a dental assistant in the Navy for four years and continued to work in the dental field after leaving.

He later transitioned to the funeral business, moving deceased bodies from hospitals and nursing homes. Vaughan said he’d deliver the deceased bodies to the funeral homes they were assigned to, sometimes representing five or six funeral homes in one night through a third-party service. 

“Anytime after 5 p.m., I get a phone call saying, ‘Hey you gotta go over here and pick this one up,’ Vaughan said. “And I’ll go over there and say, ‘Hi I’m from Jennings Archway Funeral Home,’ and got it done.”

After spending time in the funeral business, Vaughan began working at Universal Studios, where he worked on Halloween Horror Nights and in the costume department. In the costume department, he said he learned how to “eyeball something and spot it,” which helped him recreate a uniform for a deceased veteran who was over 300 pounds.

During the process, Vaughan cut multiple pieces of fabric and sewed them with others to double the chest and waist area to the required dimensions. He used a dickey — a false shirtfront — to make the uniform look presentable on the veteran during service. 

Vaughan said the finished uniform left the family in the funeral home surprised and impressed because he looked healthier.

“The way I did the uniform made him look more of a healthy weight,” Vaughan added. “So, when I tell you that, all of my costuming experience about how to make a dickey came into play.”

Married with his passion for helping veterans, Vaughan said his past experience drove him to start Dover Detail.

When he first started, Vaughan noted it took about a week to complete a uniform, but now, it takes as little as two hours.

“We will move mountains, if that’s what it takes in order to get these things done properly.”

As Vaughan approaches his fifth anniversary and continues to ship uniforms nationwide to honor veterans’ final wishes, he recalled what motivates him to help pay homage to those who came before him.

“What keeps me going is what everybody else is not doing,” Vaughan said. “Somebody has to do this.”