No more military buglers in NY State?

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Budget Cuts to Silence Military Buglers, Replaced with Recorded Renditions of Taps at New York Funerals

Foxnews.com

Joshua Rhett Miller

September 5th, 2012

As budget cuts are set to silence live performances of Taps at military funerals in New York, one military bugler told FoxNews.com the iconic musical piece should always be performed by an Honor Guard musician.

Jari Villanueva, director of the Maryland National Guard Honor Guard and a bugler at thousands of military funerals, said having a phony hornsman hold up an instrument while a recording plays isn’t befitting of the somber task of burying a veteran. Yet, the piped-in version is what mourners will hear at virtually all New York military funerals beginning Oct. 1, due to a 25 percent reduction in federal funding for the state's Military Forces Honor Guard.

This is just sad. I wish I knew how to play, I'd volunteer to do it myself.

[Chief1710 14]

An electronic bugle costs about 525.00 dollars, I hope that a few departments pick one up and share with there brothers and sister . It is an honor that all veterans deserve.

[wraftery 1,275]

Great!

A Vet dies and what does he get?

A form letter from the President, (electronically signed, of course), and Taps on a Boombox.

Once the Commander-in-Chief figures out how much the government can save by discontinuing the flag ceremony, the flag draped coffin will be gone, too.

As Michelle Obama said "All this for a flag?"

[RES20CUE 40]

Actually, this is nothing new, the shift to the electronic bugle occurred many years ago. With the rate of the WWII vets reporting to the Supreme Commander every day, there was no way possible for the Active Duty Honor Guards to keep up. They tapped into the Reserves to perform the Honor Guard tasks. Before I retired, the Navy Reserve held numerous training sessions to get our folks "up to par" to perform the newly acquired duties. We even were given a casket at the Reserve Centers to practice with. Playing a Bugle is a hard task, and not many people can play them well. The answer to that was the electronic bugle. So you still see the service member in the background holding the bugle, and hear taps from that "bugler", and not hear a horrific rendition played by someone who can't play the bugle, or the "boom box" playing a tape behind someone else's grave stone (I've seen and heard both). As more and more Reservists have been activated and the overall strength of the military has been drawn down, the Veterans Groups have stepped in to perform the honor guard duties. I've done several as a VFW member, alongside 1 to 3 service members. Usually those service members are running to 4 to 6 burials a day. The veterans groups will act as the color guard and rifle squad, generally leaving the flag-folding detail and bugler to the service members.

I hope this sheds some light on this. I'm not saying that I agree, I'm saying this is the world we're in today!

[peterose313 345]

They hardly used them outside of high profile funerals as it is. My father passed away a few years ago with full military honors (Green beret in Vietnam) and while we were fortunate enough to have one, the Colonel told us they're using taped recordings more and more.