Bereft of buglers, US goes techno
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Your support makes all the difference.It is a tradition dating back more than a century to play "Taps" – that low, mournful bugle tune – at military funerals in the United States.
Until now it has also been a tradition for real buglers to blow their horns but a shortage of the real thing means planners are having to seek a non-traditional solution.
The Pentagon has bought 50 "technologically-enhanced" bugles that will allow any member of a funeral honour guard to play "Taps" even if they possess not a jot of musical talent. By simply putting the bugle to his or her lips and then pressing a button, the bugler will "play" a digitally-recorded version of "Taps" that is amplified by a small device hidden in the cone of the instrument.
"In addition to the very high quality of sound, it provides a dignified visual – something families tell us they want," the deputy assistant secretary of defence, John Molino, told the Washington Post.
By law, any military veteran who left the service with an honourable discharge is entitled to a two-person honour guard at their funeral, along with the folding and presentation of the US flag and the playing of "Taps".
But with fewer than 500 qualified buglers available and tens of thousands of veterans dying every year, resources have been stretched.
Two years ago, Congress passed a law allowing a recording of "Taps" to be played through a tape recorder but relatives complained the experience was not the same.
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