Final tribute
‘Taps’ an every-evening event at Hillcrest Cemetery

The sun sets behind Danny Unale of the American Legion as "Taps" plays on a bugle at Hillcrest Cemetary Thursday. Several members of the American Legion gather at the cemetary to play "Taps" at sunset every night. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — When American Legion Post 8 started a ceremonial detail for funerals and ceremonies, they lacked only one thing — a ceremonial bugle.

Bugles were first used as signal instruments in the American Army during the Revolutionary War. Now they are used for ceremonies involving soldiers and veterans.

Gallup resident José Muñoz joined the American Legion when he came home from Vietnam in 1969. He moved to Gallup in 2002, after he retired as a structural designer in Phoenix. His wife works at RCMH as a respiratory therapist.

As an American Legionnaire, he searched for a bugle that could play “Taps” and “Reveille” to help out the local group.

“Not many people know how to play the bugle or play ‘Taps,’” Muñoz said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s like a lost art.”

Muñoz went online and found a bugle that has a small computer inside and will play 10 military bugle calls. He and his wife donated the bugle to the American Legion. If someone can play the bugle, the computer can be taken out and it can be played like a regular bugle.

Now, the American Legion 8 plays “Taps” every day at Hillside Cemetery on Aztec Avenue between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. The public is invited to these ceremonies.

The American Legion Post 8 meets on the first Wednesday of every month at their room in the courthouse downstairs.

Legionnaire Bill Martinez of the Blossom Shop said they recently had a building donated to them. Willie Roy and retired Navy veteran Poncho Roy donated a building next to Speedway Towing, behind Safeway, for legion activities and they are hoping to renovate it for a post.

“In the last two or three months, we received 20 to 30 new American Legion members,” Muñoz said.

The melody of the present day “Taps” was made during the Civil War by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield, in command of a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. One day in July 1862, he recalled the “Tattoo” music and hummed a version of it to an aide who wrote the melody down. Butterfield asked the brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton, to play the notes, and after listening, he lengthened and shortened them while keeping the original melody. Thereafter, Butterfield ordered Norton to play this new call at the end of each day instead of the regular call.

In modern times the U.S. military plays “Reveille” in the morning, generally near sunrise, though its exact time varies from base to base. On U.S. Army posts, the national flag is raised while “Reveille” is played (on board U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard facilities, the flag is generally raised at 8 a.m. while the national anthem or the bugle call “To the Colors” is played). On some U.S. military bases, it is accompanied with a cannon shot. As it is played all uniformed personnel are required to come to attention and present a salute either to the flag or in the direction of the music if the flag is not visible, according to the “U.S. Army Military District of Columbia Fact Sheet.”

Information: Bill Martinez: (505)-863-3886.