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.
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3 comments
You mean they can’t train folks to play taps?!? There are no valves on a bugle. It really isn’t rocket science.
I can’t believe it would take anyone with lips more than five days (practicing less than an hour a day) to learn how to play taps on a bugle.
On the other hand, I suppose we should be grateful the Pentagon isn’t paying for the development of an artificial bugle that generates an IR signature mimicking that of a real bugle warming up as it’s played.
A brilliant satire, Mr Miller! You almost had me going there. How did you get the MarineCorpsTimes to “plant” the story for you?
Again, my hat is off to you, Mr. Miller!