I am extremely proud of my grandaughter, Emily. A little while back she heard about an organization that provides buglers to play taps at military funerals. If you watched Fox News Sunday this week you saw the founder of Bugles Across America explain his organization and why he started it. There was a shortage of buglers to play at military funerals and sometimes Taps was played on a boom box or worse, a device that fits into the bell of the bugle and fakes it. So he recruited buglers from all over the country to provide live Taps for veterans. Now there are over 7000 buglers across the country playing at something like 30,000 funerals a year. So Emily signed up and has participated in several services. She has also participated in an activity called "EchoTaps". It's like singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in rounds, only playing taps that way. Last September 11th she organized and participated in an EchoTaps at her high school, sounding Taps at the times the airplanes hit the Towers, the Pentagon, and crashed in Pennsylvania.
Today Emily needed to be at the Fort Logan National Cemetery to participate in EchoTaps. Her folks were out of town on business so we agreed to take her there. It was quite an experience and it was a fitting tribute to all the fallen who are buried at Fort Logan. Fort Logan is located in Littleton, just outside of Denver, rolling hills covered in neat rows of white headstones. There was a program provided by local VFW, the National Guard, local Active Duty Military, and other civic organizations in the Denver area. One of our congressmen spoke; also an award-winning author, and a three-star general. A fly-over of a flight of F-16s, a wreath-laying, and a release of a flock of white doves, with music from a combined services band, bagpipes, and someone singing the National Anthem without yodelling or jiving it up, were all topped off by ten buglers playing EchoTaps. Emily, all of seventeen, was the lead bugler, and she did a great job of it. We were very proud of her. It was a pretty good way to spend a Memorial Day morning, too. I enjoyed being in the company of so many people who were there to express their respects to the fallen.
Even in that particular crowd, there was still some confusion over whose day it is supposed to be, a lot of thanking of the vets that were there on "their" day...but that's okay, I guess. It is better than the alternative. I was going to keep this to myself; it was kinda personal. But when I got up from my nap a few minutes ago, I thought it would be a good thing to share with you. And I encourage you to check out your own local area for the nearest National Cemetery and see if they don't have some sort of Memorial Day ceremony, and next year...get out there and participate...you won't forget it or regret it.
Oh, and by the way...Emily joined the Marines on Delayed Entry (she reports to basic training after she graduates next summer)...she's waiting for her audition for the Marine Corps Band. Did I mention how proud we are of her?