Military funeral buglers are in short supply

[unhappycamper]

A bugler plays Taps during a funeral service at Arlington National Cemetery.


Military funeral buglers are in short supply
By Jeff Martin - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Nov 11, 2009 18:02:20 EST

Gerald Pallesen recalls driving 150 miles through near-blinding snow from his home in Marcus, Iowa, four years ago to reach South Dakota the night before a blizzard closed the highways.

The next morning, Pallesen, 80, who volunteers to play taps at funerals for members of America’s military, raised his horn in the freezing February air and sounded the 24 sorrowful notes at the funeral of Army Sgt. Jeremiah Boehmer, who had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

“We owe a final salute to our true heroes,” says Pallesen, who says he still travels hundreds of miles each year to veterans’ funerals.

Buglers to play taps are in short supply at a time when the need for people who can perform this solemn duty is very high, says Tom Day, founder of the volunteer group Bugles Across America.

In addition to casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam who have died has peaked in the past few years. About 656,000 veterans died in fiscal 2009, according to Census estimates, says Jo Schuda, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs — about 1,800 a day. In fiscal 2008, about 657,000 died, according to the VA.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/111109gan_buglers/

[Sherman A1]

1. I thought I heard several years ago that in some cases

a recording was used, when a bugler was not available.

[unhappycamper]

2. When my mother died in 2005, we had a Navy woman with a tape recorder

playing taps.