Tapsbugler150

Keith Clark

2011-11-27T06:46:00.000-08:00

http://tapsbugler.com/keith-clark-bugler-at-jfks-funeral/

Taps Played for the First Time

2011-10-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

Taps Played for the First Time
Harrison's Landing Virginia, July, 1862

A sentinel paces in the moldering dank,
exercising the manual to no end
but to keep himself upright and alive --
shoulder arms, support arms, right shoulder shift --
while midsummer insects flourish in his sweat,
creeping down and through, drawing nourishment,
then lodging in his vestments and his skin.

As his flannels ferment he contemplates
the distinction between Noxious Effluvia
and Laudable Pus. He thinks of the grand
landscaping of the neighboring estate,
the view to the river from the Georgian hall,
down the allee through the ancient archway,
through rounded boxwood, cedar and myrtle
that lean in steel heat like sages or crones.

This night so tired he sees beyond the fire
demons dancing around Post Number One
and hears from woods beyond the songs of friends
dead only a week and too suddenly,
their bodies abandoned in White Oak Swamp
to mingle with the vapors now rising
and settling in a fog around the camp,
dulling the snores and farts of half-clad soldiers,
the tree line a shadow bringing the scent
of urine of those impatient for the sinks, the sinks
bringing worse.

The night becomes fuller then,
swelling as to burst like ripened corpses,
till a sweetness splits it and streams out cleanly
in piercing virtue, a sound of unfolding trinities
tracking the stages of man from freshness on
to the final ebbs, so stately and fine
though everywhere around a degradation.

The men turn to the notes with silvered eyes.
The sentinel faces about, presents his arms
to death, who brings one flower for them all.

"Courtesy of Stand Magazine, Leeds University"

From Vietnam to the World Trade Center The Rick Rescorla Story

2011-09-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

A bugle, a soldier, and a real hero of September 11th

http://tapsbugler.com/from-vietnam-to-the-world-trade-center/

Day is Done The Taps 150 CD

2011-08-25T08:26:00.001-07:00

THE TAPS CD

Please visit http://taps150.org/wp/day-is-done-the-taps150-cd/

“DAY IS DONE”
Music commemorating
the 150th anniversary of Taps
$18.00

“Day Has Done” has a variety of performances of the bugle call Taps, related bugle calls, and several orchestrations or other settings inspired by Taps. A substantial program booklet will accompany the CD. The CD contains over an hour of material. A combination of narration and program notes will introduce the selections and tell the story of the history of Taps.

The CD includes:
The Call Has Come-Holcombe/Villanueva-Michael Bogart, soloist
Tone Poem on Taps- Douglas Hedwig
Honoring Our Veterans for Brass Quintet with Band -Steven Behnke-(with Patriot Brass)
Taps for the Fallen Brave, Kevin Burns soloist
The Bugler’s Lament-Red Nichols, Jari Villanueva soloist
Taps-with orchestration, Woody English, soloist
Taps-Eternal Father, Woody English, soloist
Tenting Tonight with Taps, George Rabbai soloist
Taps, 1835 Scott Tattoo, Extinguish Lights, 1861 Tattoo
Lights Out March-McCoy
The Golden Star-Sousa
A Buglers Fantasy…MDNGHG Buglers
The Last Post/Rouse
Aux Mort
Il Silenzio
Ich Hatt’ einen Kamerden
Pahinigalay
Taps in unison (BAA Buglers)
Harmonized Taps (BAA Buglers)

PLUS!!
Taps from “Touch the Spirit” by Wayne Naus
Taps for Maynard by Walter White
Historic recording of Taps at the JFK Funeral

Medal of Honor Recipients speak out

2010-09-01T18:24:00.001-07:00

Medal of Honor Recipients speak out

The Night That Taps Was Played Twice

2010-06-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Night That Taps Was Played Twice
A personal reminiscence, 2005

by Kenneth H. Rose
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired
Hampton, Virginia

Growing up in Wisconsin during the 1950s and 60s, I was active in the Boy Scouts. At that time, World War II was still in the not so distant past and many of the Scout dads were veterans. Over the years I encountered dads who had landed on Iwo Jima, flown B-24s over Germany, and slugged it out in the Hurtgen Forest.

During my last active years, I worked on the staff at Camp Long Lake, near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The camp ranger, Bud Smith, had been a glider infantryman in the 17th Airborne Division during World War II. He had fought in the Ardennes and had participated in the cross-Rhine airborne assault at Wesel in March 1945. He was a wonderful man. Those who had the opportunity to work with him learned much about being a good Scout and being a good person.

Because I played the trumpet, I served as bugler during the daily flag lowering ceremonies. I also played Taps every Friday night at 10:00 p.m. after the end-of-week campfire as a signal to all Scouts that the evening festivities were over and it was time for quiet. I played Taps from the top of a hill, near the flagpole, so that most of the camp would hear.

One night in 1969, as I finished playing Taps and started toward my tent, I was startled by a movement from the shadows of the camp lodge. It was Bud Smith. He approached me and in the dim moonlight I could see that kind of crooked smile that was uniquely his.

“Geez,” he said, “That was be-oo-ti-ful.” Blinking his eyes—and not because the light was too harsh—he said quietly, “Play it again.”

So I did. I turned and faced another direction so that other parts of the camp might hear and played Taps, just for Bud. When I finished, he was no longer there. I caught a glimpse of him walking down the hill toward the ranger’s house, probably taking with him thoughts of things that he would rather not remember.

A few musical notes can have great emotional effect on people. I know that that night, with the playing of Taps, I touched Bud in some way that only music can.

He’s gone now. He died too soon some years later while I was serving in Korea. I learned of his death from a mutual friend only after I returned to the U.S. Recently, I was visiting relatives in Wisconsin not far from Bud’s hometown of Oconomowoc. I contacted his daughter—she remembered the night that Taps was played twice—and got directions to the cemetery where he is buried. I took along a Conn OD-painted WWII-era bugle and found Bud’s gravesite. I like to think we had a short chat. Then I played Taps for Bud one last time, one Scout to another, one airborne soldier to another.

This time, I was the one doing the blinking—and not because the light was too harsh.

This article appears in TAPSBUGLER

McHugh strengthens management, oversight at Arlington National Cemetery

2010-06-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

McHugh strengthens management, oversight at Arlington National Cemetery
Former Senators Dole, Cleland will lead independent panel

Secretary of the Army John McHugh today announced sweeping changes in the management and oversight of Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) following completion of a months-long probe by the Army’s Inspector General.

“While the Inspector General’s (IG) team found that ANC employees – under an extraordinarily high operational tempo of 27 to 30 funerals a day – performed their jobs with dedication and to a high professional standard, they also found them hampered by dysfunctional management, the lack of established policy and procedures, and an overall unhealthy organizational climate,” McHugh said. “That ends today.”

McHugh ordered the investigation following allegations of lost accountability of some graves and poor record keeping, among other issues, and released its findings at a Pentagon news conference. The investigation followed an earlier inspection and management review ordered by McHugh’s predecessor, former Army Secretary Pete Geren, which McHugh expanded shortly after taking office. Those findings were also released today.

“Both reports pointed to the lack of established policies and procedures, a failure to automate records, and long-term systemic problems,” he said.

As part of a series of corrective measures, McHugh established the newly-created position of Executive Director (ED) of the Army National Cemeteries Program, whose duties will include oversight of cemetery management, reviewing and updating policies and procedures, and implementing corrective measures outlined in the investigation and inspection reports. McHugh appointed Kathryn Condon to serve as ED, who previously served as the senior civilian for Army Materiel Command - overseeing one of the largest commands in the Army, with more than 60,000 employees in 149 locations worldwide.

Among a host of other changes and initiatives, McHugh is establishing an Army National Cemeteries Advisory Commission, which will include officials from outside the Army to regularly review policies and procedures, and provide additional guidance and support. McHugh has enlisted the services of former Senators and Army veterans Max Cleland and Bob Dole to begin that effort.

Dole represented Kansas in the Senate for three decades, and in 2007 co-chaired a commission investigating deficiencies at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In addition to serving as Senator from Georgia, Cleland is a former head of the Department of Veterans Affairs and currently serves as Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, which oversees American burial grounds in foreign countries, including the American cemetery and memorial in Normandy, France. Both are decorated Army veterans.

ANC Superintendent John Metzler, Jr., will remain in his post supporting funerals and ceremonial activities until July 2 - when he retires from federal service. However, Metzler will now report directly to the new Executive Director, and has received a letter of reprimand from McHugh based on the IG’s findings.

At McHugh’s request, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is providing a detailee while the Army conducts a nationwide search for a new Superintendent.

Patrick K. Hallinan, Director of the Office of Field Programs for the VA, who is responsible for the development and implementation of National Cemetery Policy, will be temporarily reassigned to ANC as its Superintendent. Hallinan has more than 31 years of cemetery service, and currently has oversight responsibilities for 130 national cemeteries.

The cemetery’s Deputy Superintendent was placed on administrative leave pending a disciplinary review in the wake of the findings.

“Arlington National Cemetery is the place where valor rests, a place of reverence and respect for all Americans,” McHugh said. “The Army recognizes its sacred responsibility to ensure America’s confidence in the operation of its most hallowed ground, and to the heroes for whom this is their final resting place. I believe these changes will do just that.”

In addition to Arlington National Cemetery, the Army National Cemeteries Program includes the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, DC.

The IG’s report and other documents are located on the Web HERE

For additional information, call Army Media Relations Division at 703-614-1742 or 703-697-2564.

Protocol During Taps

2010-06-08T03:21:00.000-07:00

Have you wondered what you should do when if hear Taps? What is the protocol for Taps if you attend a funeral or a ceremony where Taps is sounded?

DESIGNATION-The bugle signal known as Taps is the call sounded for Military Funeral Honors. Performance consists of 24 notes sounded on a bugle or trumpet. Taps is performed by a solo bugler or trumpeter without accompaniment or embellishment.

CONDUCT/PROTOCOL DURING SOUNDING OF TAPS - During a rendition of Taps at a military funeral, memorial service or wreath ceremony,

-All present not in uniform should stand at attention facing the music with the right hand over the heart;

-Men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold the headdress at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart; and

-Individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of Taps and maintain that position until the last note;

-When Taps is sounded in the evening as the final call of the day at military bases, salutes are not required.

Please visit TAPS150 for more information or visit Tapsbugler

Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day by President Reagan

2010-06-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your ``lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.''

I think I know what you may be thinking right now -- thinking ``we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.'' Well, everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him -- Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, ``Sorry I'm a few minutes late,'' as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.

There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a rollcall of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's ``Matchbox Fleet'' and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-day: their rockhard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.

There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall plan led to the Atlantic alliance -- a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose -- to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.

We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: ``I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

Ronald Reagan - June 6, 1984

Vision Statement for TAPS150

2010-06-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

Taps beckons us to remember patriots who served our country with honor and valor. It is the most familiar of calls and one that reaches our deepest emotions. For 23 years I served as a military bugler at Arlington National Cemetery and felt firsthand the deep feelings it evokes. As we approach the 150th anniversary of Taps, the time has come to recognize this simple melody as a national treasure; to make Taps our National Song of Remembrance; to grant it a status recognized throughout our nation. With each special event and project planned by TAPS 150, we strive to emphasize the importance of this piece of American cultural and military heritage.

Please visit TAPS150 for more information or visit Tapsbugler