Despite the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, semaphore, the walkie-talkie and satellite communications, both tradition and practicality cause the Armed Forces to continue to send messages by bugle.  Bugle calls signal when to wake up and when to chow down. “To the Color” accompanies the flag when it is raised and is accorded the same courtesies as the National Anthem. And even if the Army seldom uses it these days, it seems that no ballgame can be played without, at some point, the old cavalry call of “Charge!”  Bugle calls are part of our American culture.

            Probably the best known and easily the best loved of all bugle calls is “Taps”, the sweet 24-note melody that is heard at the end of day, and at the end of life.  Under the Servicemembers Relief Act, any honorably discharged veteran can receive a military funeral, which is supposed to conclude with a bugler playing “Taps”.  But in recent years there has been a shortage of buglers just as the nation is rapidly losing members of the World War II generation.

            Wes Hampton and Jerry McDonald, both of Corning, devised Echotaps as a way to call attention to the need for volunteer brass musicians to be available to play “Taps” at military funerals and other memorial observances.  On Saturday, May 21^st, 2005 – after two years of planning – more than 800 buglers, trumpeters, trombone and tuba players stood about 200 feet apart from the Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira to the national cemetery at Bath, NY (which are under common administration).  The exercise was sponsored by the Finger Lakes Chapter of Bugles Across America, whose founder, Tom Day of Berwin, Illinois, carries on a personal crusade to supplement the 500 buglers in the U.S. Armed Forces with volunteers in every community.  Bugles Across America now has more than 4,000 members.

Keynote speaker at the Echotaps banquet was Jari Villanueva, a bugler and member of the U.S. Air Force Band who is considered the leading authority on the history of military bugle calls.  During the Civil War, “Taps” was adapted from an earlier bugle call by General Daniel Butterfield of Utica, NY.  Butterfield was not musically trained and sought the assistance of brigade bugler Oliver Willcox Norton (who went on to found the American Can Company and was a major benefactor of the Chautauqua Institution.)

The bugler who began the Echotaps relay in sound was high school student Hannah Sollecito of Baldwinsville, NY, a descendant of General Butterfield.  After the first four notes the call was repeated by Tom Day on the bugle that played “Taps” at the funeral of President William McKinley.  Forty-one miles, two hours and 20,784 notes later the melody arrived at Bath.  The final bugler was George Taylor, who has played “Taps” for nearly ten thousand services.

Logistical support for Echotaps was by the New York Guard, the state’s official militia, under the leadership of Col. Jerry McDonald.  “The logistics involved was incredible,” he explained.  “But this is not rocket science.  There’s just a lot of it.”

At the conclusion of Echotaps, all 866 brass players gathered on the campus of the VA Hospital in Bath and, conducted by Wes Hampton, played “Taps” one more time.  To hear “Mass Taps” listen to WSKG's audio report here.

Organizers of EchoTaps now hope for a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for “longest distance playing a single piece of music.”

WSKG’s report on EchoTaps was produced and reported by Bill Jaker and edited by Gregory Keeler.  Crystal Sarakas was recording engineer for “Mass Taps”.  WSKG Radio’s operations coordinator, Kate Cook, was one of the buglers, stationed by the bridge across the Chemung River in Corning.  It wouldn’t have been successful without Kate – or any one of the other 865 musicians

Hear Bill Jaker's "Echo Taps" report... available in RealAudio, Windows Media, and MP3