ANNVILLE – Twelve buglers, led by Curwensville resident Sean Patrick Smith, will perform in Echo Taps Worldwide at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery May 19 at 11 a.m.
Echo Taps Worldwide is an annual public event that takes place at all American national cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries and American Battle Monuments Commission cemeteries overseas. Hundreds of brass musicians perform at this event a cascading rendition of “Taps,” the bugle call played during flag ceremonies and military funerals. This year’s Echo Taps Worldwide event is May 19, Armed Forces Day, and will begin at 11 a.m. local time at each location.
The Echo Taps buglers at Indiantown Gap are led by Bugles Across America volunteer Smith.
Smith is a former member of the Penn State University Marching Blue Band and is currently director of the Centre region pep bands for the Penn State Alumni Blue Band Association. Assisting Smith is Bugles Across America Assistant State Director Howard T. Reitenbaugh of Huntingdon, a retired United States Air Force pilot.
Echo Taps is sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and by Bugles Across America, a not for profit organization founded in 2000 by Tom Day, USMC (Retired) to provide live buglers to perform “Taps” at military funerals. Currently, Bugles Across America has over 5,000 volunteer buglers located in all 50 states and overseas. Anyone of any age may volunteer to become a Bugles Across America bugler, if they can play “Taps” on a trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn or bugle with an ease and style that will do honor to veterans and their families.
Indiantown Gap National Cemetery is one of 120 National Cemeteries managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The cemetery is located in Annville and is adjacent to the Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation. Opened Sept. 20, 1982, the cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 15,000 veterans and their dependents. The cemetery is open to the public daily from dusk to dawn.
Anyone who would like to request buglers for military funeral services or volunteer as a bugler may contact Bugles Across America at their Web site. Bugler services through Bugles Across America are free of charge.
If you are in the Clearfield County region, contact Sean Patrick Smith at 236-3813 or at seanpatricksmith@verizon.net.