Pentagon OKs push-button bugle for funerals

Marine Corps Times ^ | September 04, 2003 | Pauline Jelinek

[Ed Straker]

September 04, 2003

Pentagon OKs push-button bugle for funerals

By Pauline Jelinek

Associated Press

Chronically short of musicians for military funerals, the Pentagon has approved the use of a push-button bugle that plays taps by itself as the operator holds it to his lips.

Only some 500 buglers are on active duty on any one day, but about 1,800 people with military service die across the country each day and are eligible for honors ceremonies, Air Force Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Thursday.

So the Defense Department worked with private industry to invent the "ceremonial bugle," which has a small digital recording device inserted into its bell to play the music.

A member of the honor guard at the funeral simply presses a button on the device. A five-second delay gives the guards time to raise the instrument to their lips as if they are going to play it.

The vast majority of families endorsed its use in a six-month test from November to May in Missouri, where 50 prototypes were distributed to military units and others who provide funeral honors, such as veterans groups, the Pentagon said in a statement Wednesday night. Based on the test, use of the instrument was approved by Principal Deputy Under Secretary Charles S. Abell.

A real bugler still will be used when available.

Otherwise, the family of the deceased service member will be offered the ceremonial bugle as an alternative to prerecorded taps, often played on a boom box.

Use of the $500 instrument "is intended to enhance the dignity of military funeral honors," the Pentagon said.

Also, it plays "an exceptionally high-quality rendition of taps that is virtually indistinguishable from a live bugler," the Pentagon said.

The military has been struggling for years to cope with its shortage of musicians for funerals. Families of honorably discharged veterans are entitled to a two-person uniformed funeral honor guard, the folding and presentation of the U.S. flag and a rendition of taps.

Congress passed a law that took effect in January 2000 and allows a recorded version of taps using audio equipment if a live horn player is not available.

Officials say the push-button bugle is a dignified alternative because the visual effect of a guard playing the instrument is better than taps played on a stereo or compact disc player.

[EggsAckley]

Sounds like MIDI to me.

[Prof Engineer]

GRRRRR. Clinton's Legacy.

[Revolting cat!]

Dear Bereaved, Please give a warm welcome to your bugler!

[RightWhale]

There isn't a shortage of buglers. It's just that buglers also have other assignments. But this digital bugler idea is surrealistic.

[MineralMan]

What a strange idea. Why not, instead, go to the local high schools and pay the best trumpet players in the band to blow "Taps" at these funerals. The kids would think it an honor to be asked.

It's not like "Taps" is that difficult a bugle call. I don't even play brass, but I can blow "Taps" on any brass instrument, from the trumpet to the sousaphone. Every kid who plays the trumpet can do a decent job with it, never mind the first trumpet section players in any HS band.

Digital Bugle? Ridiculous and insulting, IMO.

[jpl]

I agree. I'm shocked that the Corps would agree to something like this. I would think that in an emergency situation having someone in the National Guard would be more dignified. A fallen veteran deserves better than a mechanical recording.

[ArrogantBustard]

Do the Boy Scouts still teach the bugle? If so, yet another source of competent musicians.

The kids would think it an honor to be asked.

Most of 'em would, anyway.

[CJ Wolf]

great idea, but don't you think it might be a tad too depressing for the kids in highschool, i mean think about the children. /sarcasm

[MineralMan]

"Do the Boy Scouts still teach the bugle? If so, yet another source of competent musicians. "

I think so, but kids in the band are more proficient on their instruments. "Taps" needs to be played well. Nothing is sadder than a lousy rendition of that at a funeral. Most Scouts who learn the bugle, but who don't play a brass instrument, aren't up to the task at a funeral, I'd guess.

[MineralMan]

"I agree. I'm shocked that the Corps would agree to something like this. I would think that in an emergency situation having someone in the National Guard would be more dignified. A fallen veteran deserves better than a mechanical recording.
"

Personally, I think the High School kid is a better idea, overall. National Guard folks might not be available, and there aren't that many buglers in the NG, in any case.

I learned bugle calls in high school, even though I was a reed player. I practised a lot on them, and often played "To the Colors" at the flag-raising in the mornings. I considered it an honor. Compared to that bugle call, "Taps" is child's play.

I have played "Taps," however, at several funerals. I play it on a Baritone horn rather than a bugle, and it sounds wonderful on that instrument...very mournful.

[Prodigal Son]

You know, Jean Baudrilliard would probably have to go have a lie down if he read about this.

[AZ Flyboy]

Amen to that!!!

What about the College ROTC programs or even the HSJROTC units? There are plenty of dedicated patriots that would perform such a meaningful service to the heroes of our nation.

[AZ Flyboy]

What was believed to be a massive earthquake in the Washington D.C. and Virginia area was discovered to be the sound of hundreds of fallen heroes rolling over in their graves in Arlington National Cemetary...

[stainlessbanner]

I like the ROTC, Boy Scout, local musician, High School idea - all good suggestions.

Funeral homes are contracted by the military to perform the ceremony also. They must agree to strict procedural conduct including music, speeches, etc.

[Greybird]

GRRRRR. Clinton's legacy.

Nonsense. It's sheer numbers. You're an engineer, or so you say -- can you understand them? We have 1,800 per day passing away, out of nearly 18 million men (and some thousands of women) who served during the Second World War.

That bulge in the conscripted armed forces was the "boom" that preceded the baby boom they created upon coming back home, and it is that generation we now see dying. It was created wholly by human action -- that of Roosevelt and his contemporaries -- not by any natural shifts in population.

This demographic, pressing upon a military musical specialty that is not infinitely elastic, creates a shortage. Would you prefer that some men be brought home from Iraq to be trained on the bugle? (Actually, I would, since I don't care for this imperial adventure, but I doubt the average FReeper would.)

Or should such military-honors funerals be postponed indefinitely, with families bearing the cold-storage costs at the mortuaries, until a bugler is available?

This is a dignified solution which would have had to be considered at some point by the late '90s. Leave the condemnations of Clinton to situations which he had something to do with creating, at least.

(I don't post this out of personal interest. My father, a Navy veteran of World War II, died six years ago and donated his body for the training of physicians in anatomy. Although we received the flag from the VA, we had no funeral. That freed up a bugler for someone else, as it turned out.)

[Hatteras]

Air guitar, air drums, air... bugle?

[BooBoo1000]

I think you have never been around a real Scout Troop. Our Bugler was not a world class player, but when he played Mess Call Not a Scout missed. Just like Rodney Dangerfield " No Respect"..

[19th LA Inf]

Back in 1952 our little Army post had the bugle calls on a 78 rpm record. The only ones used were Reveille, Retreat and Taps at lights-out time. If you were outdoors you had to stand Retreat. But the scratching of the record over the PA system usually gave enough warning for us to beat it inside.

[Fletcher J]

I agree with you. Obviously, there's a shortage of buglers. I also think people may be mistaken when they assume that a "real bugler" is going to be better than the electronic bugle.

In the early 90's, my wife's Navy uncle was killed in an accident while working. The Navy sent the body and widow home, and a military funeral was conducted. The bugler was absolutely horrible - I don't think he hit a single correct note. Many of my wife's family members actually quit sobbing as they turned to look at each other in amazement, realizing how truly awful it was. It was embarassing, to say the least.

Taps played electronically from a bugle would have been far better. The honour guard stands pretty far back from the ceremony - if they don't wave the bugle with the hidden electronics in the family's face, the family would never know.

If it sounds good, it is good. People are claiming that bugling is easy but trust me - it wasn't for this guy.

For what it's worth, the two girls folding the widow's flag didn't do much better - they folded it completely backwards. During the folding ceremony they realized it was screwed up, and started trying to fix it, but ended up having to hand it over with the red and white stripes showing. Their commander came over after the ceremony, took back the flag and had someone else fold it correctly. I felt sorry for them - I think they got in trouble over it.