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OperationTaps.org
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Operation Taps Notes: Over the past several months, I've learned a few things about the process of providing a live Taps bugler for military honors funerals. The biggest thing I've learned... is that there is no set-in-stone process that is followed nationwide by either the military, veterans groups, or the funeral industry. As one active military Honor Guardsmen told me, “the only way to guarantee that a live Taps bugler will be present is if a friend of the family is willing to play." In most cases the family won't know until the last minute if Taps will be played by a live bugler or a recording. There has to be a better way. I've attempted to discuss this with my congressman, but he is not running for re-election and his staff wasn't very helpful. But one of the candidates for that seat - NY's 26th District (WNY) - has been very supportive and is very interested in helping once elected. Regardless of your location or party affiliation, please take a look at the web site: John Powers for Congress. I'm going to ask that they review the rules so that a family is informed in advance that there may not be a live bugler and that they have the right to contact a qualified civilian volunteer. You may have noticed that we've discontinued tracking the OperationTaps / DCA Challenge... When I started thinking about how I could encourage and motivate the drum and bugle corps community to participate in OperationTaps, I realized that there were two ways to motivate drum corps people: 1) Pay them Well, I certainly wasn't going to pay drum corps horn players to do something that we used to do for free 20 years ago, so making it competition was the method I chose. Some groups have really jumped with both feet, but for various reasons other groups haven't participated. That's fine. If even one person has put thought into this for the first time, that's good enough. However, some groups are a little discouraged to get involved and that is absolutely not what I wanted to happen. From this point forward, I'll post running totals for all participating units as a whole. The site will put more emphasis on your Stories of Service. I know that a lot of groups and individuals have be doing great things in their communities, and I'd like to bring attention to them and hopefully give ideas to others about how they can do more in their communities. Please continue to report on your progress and do not hesitate to share your stories. Thank you.
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