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EchoTaps Goes ‘Worldwide’ on Armed Forces Day

May 19, 2007

VA Promotes Bugling at Veterans’ Burials

WASHINGTON -- More than 2,000 volunteer brass players will perform the 24 notes of “Taps” on Saturday, May 19, Armed Forces Day, at 11 a.m. local time, at veterans cemeteries and certain U.S. military cemeteries overseas.

“EchoTaps honors the sacrifices of the American military and helps to preserve the tradition of a live bugler playing Taps for the final military honor,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “We also hope this event will raise awareness of veterans cemeteries and volunteer opportunities.”

Organized by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Bugles Across America, “EchoTaps Worldwide” will honor veterans at almost all VA national cemeteries and state veterans cemeteries, National Park Service cemeteries and four American Battle Monuments Commission overseas cemeteries. Organizers hope the event will interest brass players in volunteering to perform Taps at military funerals of veterans year-round.

Musicians will form lines through the cemeteries and perform a cascading version of Taps. Brass players from ages 9 to 101 have registered to play. They come from school groups, pipe bands, veterans organizations, military installations and professional orchestras, and include people who signed up on a Bugles Across America Web site ( www.echotaps.org ).

The first “EchoTaps” was held in May 2005, when 674 brass players from 30 states lined 42 miles of road between the Woodlawn and Bath national cemeteries in Elmira and Bath, N.Y. Cascading “Taps” lasted nearly three hours from the first note at Woodlawn to the last at Bath. On Veterans Day 2006, players performed “EchoTaps” at 52 national and state veterans cemeteries. VA has since expanded EchoTaps nationally and internationally .

Musicians interested in volunteering to perform Taps at veterans’ burial services in VA national cemeteries should contact the director of any national cemetery.

Veterans with a discharge other than dishonorable, their spouses and dependent children can be buried in a national cemetery. Other burial benefits available for all eligible veterans, regardless of whether they are buried in a national cemetery or a private cemetery, include a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate, and a government headstone or marker.

In the midst of the largest cemetery expansion since the Civil War, VA operates 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, and 33 soldiers’ lots and monument sites. More than three million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA national cemeteries, on more than 17,000 acres of land.

Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov , or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.

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Larry Scott

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