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Bugles with Knobs
Thanks to what
the US Department of Defense calls "advancements in digital audio
technology", America's military funerals will soon sound much better.
Aficionados of Westerns should recognise the plaintive strains of Taps, the
bugle call played at sunset on army posts, and at military funerals as well.
But the armed forces don't have enough real buglers to cover the thousands
of veterans' funerals each year, and playing a recording of Taps on a
portable stereo is felt to lack dignity. So the DoD has collaborated with
industry to create a "ceremonial bugle".
All a soldier in the honour guard has to do is push a button and hold the
bugle to his or her lips, and a splendid rendition of Taps (recorded live at
Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, 1999) will issue forth.
The DoD, which is now testing 50 of the digital bugles, says that as well
as superior sound, they will offer the "dignified visual" of a real person
holding what looks like a real instrument to their lips - even if they can't
play a note without electronic assistance.
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