Memorial Day remembered in letters Civil War coming to life in special Memorial Day ceremony

BY DEBRA NEUTKENS STAFF WRITER

Two brass bugles painstakingly handcrafted with machinist precision will sound Taps at the culmination of this year’s Memorial Day ceremony at Union Cemetery.

What makes the event special is not just the one-of-a-kind instruments’ debut, but the fact the bugles will be part of the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Their maker, Bill Milashius, has enlisted two former Army musicians to play what’s referred to as “echo Taps” for the commemoration, meaning one bugle will answer the other.

Taps is a 24-note bugle call sounded to signal “lights out” at the end of a military day, honor the fallen at funerals and close patriotic memorial ceremonies.

Americans will be celebrating Memorial Day on Monday, May 29. It is one of history’s most solemn days honoring the men and women who died while serving in the United States military. Navy serviceman Greg Tardiff wrote his wife Suzanne every day for nine months while he was on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga during the Vietnam War. Before he away their daughter’s Megan and Ashley compiled the letters into a book called, “Letters from the Saratoga.”