Free Republic

Long time St. Louis Post Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan is advocating ending the practice of giving most veterans military honors at their funerals. His reason? Government can't afford it. Certainly, men and women killed in combat deserve full military honors. It's a way for the country to say, "We honor the memory of those who died in our service." These military honors - and the thought behind them - are intended to provide some solace for the families of the fallen. But what about the guy who spends a couple of years in the military and then gets on with...

Marc Garcia is a trumpet player who moonlights as a bugler at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. He plays taps at the end of graveside services. If you have ever been to such a service, you know that the haunting notes of the melody provide an emotional end to the event. Garcia contacted me recently to say that he and his fellow buglers have been replaced by a battery-operated bugle. He wrote in an email: “When I sound live taps, I put all my spirit and soul into all 24 notes that I play, and that’s the same spirit and soul...