Bugles Across America

ampersat · 11-11-2003, 10:26 AM

I was driving to work this morning listening to NPR and there was a story about Bugles Across America. Apparently, there is a lack of official personnel to provide a bugler for every Veteran's funeral. At many funerals, they were resorting to "boom boxes" to play taps. There were often issues with this (bad tape, skippy CDs, low batteries, etc.) and the families were not always happy about the way the funeral service turned out. The military came up with a "digital bugle" that allowed any person to "appear" to play taps (it was actually a digital recording of Taps being played at Arlington National Cemetary) but it's just not the same as having someone playing it live.

In 2000, Tom Day founded Bugles Across America to provide a live bugler for these funerals. So far, there are 17 people from Oregon registered to provide this service. They are actively accepting volunteers to provide this service and aside from being able to play Taps in a dignified manner, there are pretty much no other restrictions or requirements. "The Department of Veterans Affairs is expecting more than 1/2 million veterans to pass every year for the next 7 years." (quoted from the BAA site)

Many years ago, I played trumpet. If I still had a horn I'd sign up myself. I'm going to look into buying a bugle so that I can do this. If you have ever played a trumpet, cornet, french horn, fluglehorn or trumpet, or have an interest in learning, I urge you to sign up for this. Our veterans deserve respect and this is a great way to show it.

OceanBlue · 11-11-2003, 01:30 PM

Amp - Check with music stores. I'm renting my daughter's trumpet for $18/mo. Some of the stores have coronets for as little as $10/mo. In the long run, buying would be cheaper, but I wonder if you couldn't work out something with one of the local stores to rent one on an as needed basis.

My daughter would LOVE to do this. She's only 12, though...

Thumper · 11-11-2003, 05:05 PM

Hey, would that not be so cool?!? A little 12-year-old lady playing taps for our heroes. They would be so proud. That is exactly what they served for. :smile:

OceanBlue · 11-12-2003, 07:18 AM

Thumper - yes, it would be very cool. Unfortunately, she isn't independently mobile...

Funny thing is, she was just asking me how Taps went last night. She doesn't have the sheet music and is trying to figure it out. And I never mentioned this to her at all!

[ 11-12-2003, 08:20 AM: Message edited by: OceanBlue ]