Buglers Scarce for Veterans' Funerals

[Robbien]

. . .

An average of 1,800 U.S. veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam die per day. There are not nearly enough buglers to perform live renditions at military funerals.

Taps is usually delivered digitally, using either a compact disc player placed near the grave or, increasingly since 2003, a Pentagon-approved, push-button "ceremonial bugle" that anyone can mimic playing by raising it to their lips.

The armed forces have about 500 musicians who perform taps, but many of them have been dispatched to Iraq and Afghanistan. About 3,800 civilian volunteers in the four-year-old Bugles Across America group also fill in wherever they can.

. . .

"I belong to two honor guards and we do funerals almost daily," said Taylor, of Newark, Del. "We had three buglers and two of them died and it's down to me."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-taps-too-few-buglers,0,4059072.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[Michael_Bush]

1. I wish I could play the bugle

Those men died fighting for a better world. This would be a big propaganda coup for Dem musicians to step up and help.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[havocmom]

6. Um, pardon? Vets from WWII did not fight for a better world? WTF

read again: An average of 1800 vets from WWII, Korea and Viet Nam die per day.

Back up, breath and re-think the snit. Not about those currently dying in Iraq.

[LynnTheDem]

8. Thanks for pointing out my faux pas, appreciate it. As for the snit,

trust me, it's for a very valid reason. Unfortunately. :(

Thanks again!

[havocmom]

10. Me too. About a year ago, the kid up the street was killed in a hummer

accident in a 'hood far far from home.

[LynnTheDem]

11. Brutal. That's what gets to me, they're dying so far away, so scared,

no family near them.

Gawd I hate this mess.

[havocmom]

13. With ya in spirit, LynnTheDem

With ya in spirit.

[LynnTheDem]

15. And with you, havocmom

:hug:

[LynnTheDem]

9. Michael, I do hope you'll forgive me! This is a VERY bad week & wkend

Being military, we seem to have those far too often!

:hug:

[LynnTheDem]

2. THANK BUSH! For the lack of buglers- they're busy dying in Iraq...

and for the need for more buglers for all the funerals from troops dying in Iraq.

Thank the AWOL COWARD who YET AGAIN sent others to die for him.

[MuseRider]

3. We had a bugler yesterday

at my cousins funeral. He played outside and it echoed all around the rolling hills of the Leavenworth National Cememtary, it was very moving. There was a living bugler at my friends funeral on Wednesday. I KNOW that one was doing it himself because he had one of those "Teee Yahhs" as he tried to hit the top note the first time. There is something special about someone really playing it.

[w4rma]

5. Bush wouldn't know. He hasn't been to a single soldier's funeral. (nt)

[TexasLawyer]

7. No dead soldiers from Desert Storm and our latest Mid-East Wars???

"An average of 1,800 U.S. veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam die per day. There are not nearly enough buglers to perform live renditions at military funerals."

The article implies that buglers are needed only for the funerals of men dead of old age. Not so. The Desert Storm vets are rapidly dying before their time:

EXPOSING THE MYTH OF THE ‘CASUALTY-FREE WAR’: GULF WAR SYNDROME

Of approximately 697,000 American servicemen and women deployed to the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, some 40,000 are dead and 400,000 are currently suffering from various maladies associated with what has become known as Gulf War Syndrome.


<snip>

http://www.americanfreepress.net/11_04_02/EXPOSING_THE_MYTH_/exposing_the_myth_.html

And of course there are caskets flying in every day from our current wars, and every reason to suspect more cases of Gulf War Syndrome in our current crop of soldiers.

[cmd]

12. I played Taps for funerals in high school

Two students from the trumpet section were driven to the cemetary. They played Taps and the Taps echo then were taken back to school. I remember playing for several funerals my senior year.

[dflprincess]

14. I worked with a guy who also did that in high school

He lived in a small town and the local American Legion would take him to the cemetary and back to school.

[Skwmom]

16. Contract it out like they have everything else. e/o/m