I don’t know about NYC specifically but the pipers we have for police functions in New Jersey are all volunteers. They play at funerals and also at parades and such. They do it for the free beer they get at events and St Practice day performances and also for the opportunity to wear a skirt in public.
How many buglars do you think are in the military? Taps might be easy to play for a musician but its not easy to play without sounding like shit. In my state the National Guard will provide a small funeral detail for veterans. Sometimes it has to be as small as two people. The bugle is the electronic kind. It automatically starts we held to the lips and turns off if you take it away from the mouth. Most people have no idea its a recording.
At my dad’s (WWII vet) funeral (8 years ago) the taps was recorded. But the Navy did send two young sailors something like 150 miles to play that song, salute my dad and to hand us a flag. I’d say the Navy did their part for a guy who hadn’t seen service in something like 60 years. A lot more than I expected anyway.
Is it? Every year when I go to Boy Scout summer camp with my troop, pretty much each day a different kid plays the bugle for the flag ceremony. Granted, most of them are about as good as bugler from F Troop, but they can play.
Personally, I would much prefer that we honor our troops by not sending them off to kill for dishonorable and stupid purposes. One Viet Nam was too many. God forgive us, but once the war pervs start banging the drums, we lose our minds.
And if I never, ever again hear Amazing Grace played on the goddam! fucking! bagpipes!! it will be too soon.
It is said that the Irish gave the Scots the bagpipes over a thousand years ago, and the Scots never caught on.
Hey, we go to the same camp! And after the bugler, the cannon goes off and knocks down the homemade guard tower.
Back on topic, my father-in-law recently got an honor guard of six at his funeral, and he was only a Sergeant (but his job, I’m not kidding, was playing a tuba in Japan) (after Hiroshima, as part of rehabilitating our reputation).
But even more absurd… a fallen soldier gets an mp3 player hidden inside a bugle? Really? That’s another sign that we’ve hit rock bottom as a society… hell, as a species.
On the bright side, if we’re at the bottom, maybe it’ll all look like up from now on.
I believe it depends on ran, war veteran status and cause of death.
My grandfather (Bird Colonel, WWII Korea and Vietnam ribbons) got an Army Minister, 21 Gun and a bugler. He also had the horse drawn caisson march to the grave (note - they have a special casket with a slot for holding ashes if you cremate). He died in his sleep at age 94.
So this guy learns how to play the bagpipes in high school, and gets pretty good at it, but ultimately falls out of practice and hangs them up.
In his early 30’s he’s a single cube monkey, and he decides to take up the bagpipes again. He gets decent and volunteers to play funerals, some of which take him to ancient family plots in the mountains surrounding town.
On one such excursion, he gets hopelessly lost. His garmin is no help, he’s beyond late, and he just wants to find his way out and go home. Suddenly he sees a cabin and a few construction workers standing around a hole. He figures “well, I missed the service, but I’m here, so why not? I play and then ask these guys how to get to the highway.”
He jumps out of his car and pulls his pipes out of the trunk and plays a few tunes. The construction workers look puzzled, but take off their hats and stand reverently as the sun goes down. When the man is done he asks for directions, gets in his car, and drives away.
One construction worker turns to another and says “well I’ll be damned if this isn’t the strangest septic tank installation I’ve ever done!”
But anyway, when my grandfather passed a few years ago they played a recording. The local VFW did the 21-gun and flag folding and we gave them a donation.
Believe it or not, Army musicians are not at the top of the priority list for recruiting. Major commands have bands for events. There are certainly not enough to cover every funeral of every veteran in all 50 states.
As for the fake bugle, the one that is used by our guys could fool anyone. It looks and sounds real. In a ceremony it looks a lot better than pushing a button.
To clarify, I don’t understand why the OP is bitching a shitstorm about not having live buglers. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have state funerals or anything.
My dad died last year, a couple days before Halloween.
The local Scottish Highlander/Shriner group (which he was a long time participating member of) volunteered (meaning without pay) to stand honor guard over his ashes at the wake, and play Amazing Grace at his tombside later on.
I appreciated their contribution. I humbly disagree with yours, here, today.
If this is part of a budget restructuring, hopefully the diverted funds will go to pay for sufficiently armoured vehicles and whatnot. That way the defense department save even more in funeral costs in the long run. Not that I want the buglers to lose their jobs, but I’m sure they could play returning home jigs or something?
At our local National Cemetery, as late as '09 at least one regular old eligible veteran (a Korea vet who did his two years and out, not a pensioned career soldier) didn’t even get a whole recording of “Taps”. It sounded like a multiple-generation copy, too. And never mind an actual graveside ceremony - the ceremony was conducted at one of various strategically located designated spaces.
It is my opinion that bagpipers sound exactly like mimes being electrocuted.
You don’t have to apologize; this is the Pit.
(I’m genuinely sorry for your loss, and I felt the same way about a real bugler playing Taps at my dad’s graveside.[/emotion])
For those of you claiming that military funds could be better used to armor cats or feed starving colonels than to honor military dead, I haven’t seen anybody clamoring for defense funds to pay for buglers. The OP mentioned that the State of NY (emphasis mine) had ceased to pay for this minor service, so snap out of it and swear at each other for the right reason, or maybe go shake your fists at NY veterans’ service groups for not volunteering a few hours a week to play a simple tune on a bugle for a fallen comrade.
Buglers, schmuglers. You know they were desperate to cut corners once they started sending out seven guys to shoot three times instead of 21 guys to shoot once!
Arlington National Cemetery uses actual buglers. To see a full colonel or above burial is something. Escort platoon, a colors team, a band, a caisson section and a caparisoned horse.
If the family wishes for bagpipes (to play Amazing Grace or some other selection), there are people who offer to provide that service, though it is not part of the official burial.
The state or gov’t should find a way to pay for the bugler. It’s simply paying back a debt owed by the nation to the service member, and their families. It’s a sign of respect. It fundamentally is the same reason we pay for National Cemeteries like Arlington in the first place.
