Large crowd stands for the Invocation at Veterans Park, Lynnwood
To me, Memorial Day is always special, apart from its main purpose–to remember those veterans who gave their lives in service to our country. I’m one of the lucky ones who get to perform at this special memorial ceremony! And not only that, I get to sound bugle calls. And more than that, one of them is “Echo Taps”. And on top of that, the other two are “Assembly” at 11 a.m. to call the meeting to order and “To the Color” as the flag is raised at noon from half-staff to full staff. And such it was this Memorial Day, celebrated on Monday, 26 May 2025.
Joining me to sound the “Echo” part was Jasper Stutes, a senior trumpeter at Lynnwood High School. Among the other participants were the VFW Post 1040 Honor Guard, the Nile Shrine Legion of Honor, and Boy Scout Troop 49. I’m sure those participants felt as lucky, proud, and honored as I did.
I used by Getzen bugle–love that horn!
Photos by Julia Wiese, Lynnwood Today. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Glenn LedbetterBoy Scout Troop 49Jasper Stutes (background)Nile Shrine & VFW Post 1040Navy Veteran & Navy FlagVFW Post 1040 Honor Guard
U.S. Navy Wreath (photo by Phil Onishi)Photo by Glenn LedbetterPeople voluntarily lay the wreaths (photo by Phil Onishi)
Despite the high, cold wind at 9 a.m. on Saturday, 14 December 2024, the participants and crowd gathered at the Doughboy statue in Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Evergreen-Washelli in north Seattle for the 16th annual Wreaths Across America (WAA) ceremony. The wind chill was so bad that the emcee, Lorraine Zimmerman, cut her own speech from the program. She is President and Executive Director of the Veterans Memorial Wreaths Foundation (WMWF—please see http://www.vmwf.org).
The croud gathers
My bugle call, “Assembly,” called the ceremony to order. The first major event, as always, was the placement of flags upon the 8 ceremonial wreaths by representatives of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and POWs/MIAs. (Read more about the POW/MIA representative below.) Then the Honor Guard of VFW Post 1040 of Lynnwood fired a 21-gun salute (3 volleys).
Lorraine Zimmerman presides as emcee
The ceremony concluded with “Echo Taps.” I sounded the lead part and James D. (Jim) Kellett, Army Musician CWO2, did the “echo.” I used my Getzen field trumpet (bugle), and he used his Super Olds trumpet. [Recall that I own a Super Olds cornet.] He is a member of the VFW 1040 Honor Guard and regularly sounds “Taps” with the Rifle Team at funeral services for veterans at numerous cemeteries throughout the area.
The second main event is the placement of wreaths against selected headstones among the more than 5,000 graves of veterans within Evergreen-Washelli. Seven Medal of Honor recipients are buried there. Zimmerman asked the wreath-laying volunteers to read aloud the names on the headstones as they placed the wreaths and thank them for their service—they are not forgotten.
Similar ceremonies are being held this year at the same local time in more than 4,500 participating locations in all 50 states, at sea, and abroad. More than two million volunteers and supporters are involved (please see http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org).
Flag placement on POW/MIA Wreath
Capt. Wilson, Cadet Mugo, and Lorraine Zimmerman
When the time came, Zimmerman called the POW/MIA representative to the podium to receive the flag that he would place on the POW/MIA wreath. As he stood before her, she read a brief description of his POW experience.
““Captain William W. Wilson, U.S. Air Force, is assisted by Cadet Martin Mugo, UW USAF ROTC.
“Captain Wilson, former prisoner during the Vietnam War, made 33 missions over North Vietnam and Laos, flying an F-111 Aardvark before being shot down while bombing the Red River docks in downtown Hanoi on 22 December 1972. He evaded capture for a week, was nearly rescued by a Super Jolly Green helicopter, and then was captured by the North Vietnamese on 29 December. He spent a month in the ‘Heartbreak’ section of the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ [Hoa Lo Prison, loosely meaning ‘hell’s hole’ or ‘fiery furnace’] before being moved to the ‘Zoo’ [facility near the village of Cu Loc].
“He returned to U.S. control on the last C-141A Starlifter out of Hanoi on 29 March 1973 during Operation Homecoming.
“Bill will now place a flag in honor of the more than 83,000 United States servicemen and women from all branches of the service whose last known status was either Prisoner of War or Missing in Action. These individuals have never returned to their families and homes. We will not forget you.”
After he placed the flag and rendered a slow hand salute, he turned and walked slowly back across the grass toward the crowd. From a distance, I rendered a hand salute to him, and as he stepped onto the paved road, the crowd broke into warm applause. Zimmerman later told me, “I was so proud when the crowd honored him so spontaneously.” Indeed, it was the highlight of this year’s ceremony. Please see the photos (below, by Phil Onishi) of Captain Wilson and Cadet Mugo.
Embouchure Troubles Are Subsiding Nicely
Glenn Ledbetter warms up his bugle by sounding “Assembly” with a practice mute that deadens the sound
It was one year ago that I developed severe embouchure troubles for the first time in my life. Old age brought crooked teeth, to the point that my left front tooth had crossed over the right one just enough to disrupt the air flow into the mouthpiece of my horns. The problem flared up suddenly, right before last year’s WAA ceremony. I first alluded to it in my blog post of 10 June 2024, about the previous WAA ceremony. Then I wrote about it in more detail in my post of 12 June about my performance at The Bellettini retirement community in Bellevue. (Please use the Archives in the left column to find these articles, if you wish).
I had to go to the orthodontist for the solution: not braces, but Invisaligners (see http://www.invisalign.com). I wear them constantly, daily, except when eating. They have been gradually straightening my teeth since last February. Next spring, my teeth should be completely straight with the proper overbite—Oh, Happy Day!
But last May, after only four months, my teeth had straightened sufficiently that I was able to start performing again. My first public appearances were on Memorial Day when I performed at the ceremonies at Veterans Park in Lynnwood and in T-Mobile Park at the Seattle Mariners baseball game before a crowd of 24,000. Since then, on a reduced schedule, I have performed my one-hour trumpet shows at several retirement communities in the Greater Seattle area (scroll down this page). I’ll resume normal scheduling in 2025.
Photos Credits and Donations, Likes and Comments
Please click on any photo to enlarge it. All photos (except the one by me) are by Phil Onishi (please see https://philonishiphotography.smugmug.com). Mr. Onishi, long-time Band Director at Lynnwood High School, sang the National Anthem.
Donations are welcomed by both WAA and WMWF. I invite you to “Like” and “Comment” by clicking on the links below.
The national tradition is to conduct the Veterans Day ceremony at 11 a.m. local time, worldwide, on the 11th day of the 11th month—formerly known as Armistice Day, WWI. Never forget, as succeeding generations were charged by Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae in his elegant poem, “In Flanders Field.” And so this is done annually at Veterans Park in downtown Lynnwood.
This is the second time that I’ve sat in my walker at this location for sounding the two bugle calls, ‘”Assembly” and “Echo Taps.” My lower back hurts, and when I stand to play, I’m a bit shaky. Also, I am challenged by the aligners that are in my mouth to straighten my teeth. (They should be removed by next Memorial Day.) Old age does its thing. So, when I sit, it sounds better. Judah Deuman sounded the “echo” part. He graduated from Lynnwood High School last spring. I used my Getzen field trumpet, and he used his trumpet.
Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Photos by Julia Wiese, Lynnwood Today:
Boy Scouts Troop 49Glenn Ledbetter, VFW 1040 BuglerVFW Post 1040 Honor Guard (L) and Legion of Honor, Nile Shrine Center (R)
On Memorial Day this year, I sounded four bugle calls:
MorningStar Senior Living at Silver Lake, Everett
“Assembly” and “Echo Taps” at the ceremony hosted by VFW Post 1040 at Veterans Park in Lynnwood.
“Taps” at the retirement community, MorningStar Senior Living at Silver Lake, in Everett.
“Taps” at the Seattle Mariners baseball game at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
Judah Deuman, a senior trumpeter at Lynnwood High School, played the “echo” part of “Echo Taps” with me.
Veterans Park, Lynnwood
These were very significant, “comeback” performances for me. I had not played in public for the past five months.
In my previous blog article, I divulged that during last December, I was having trouble playing my horns. My orthodontist predicted that I should be able to play my horns again by Memorial Day. Sure enough, it happened!
Now, what else could happen? Sciatica, that’s what. While sounding “Assembly” during the morning ceremony in Lynnwood, I discovered I could not hold a steady tone while standing, due to my lower back pain. So, for the rest of the day, I sounded “Taps” while seated on my walker and did just fine.
Who said that old age is just a number? Well, if that’s true, then jail is just a room.
The privilege of sounding “Taps” at the Mariners game that evening is presented in my next blog article.
“Things Remembered” is the name of one of my favorite one-hour trumpet shows. But that show is not the remembrance that still bothers me. Instead, it’s the memory of those five days, 16 to 20 December just before Christmas. On the 16th, I performed two bugle calls at the Wreaths Across America ceremony in Seattle, which I wrote about in my previous post here. And on the 20th, I performed my trumpet show, “Things Remembered,” at The Bellettini,” in downtown Bellevue. I struggled to play my horns on both days, and afterwards, I did not touch them again for the first four and a half months this year. What happened? Let me tell you.
Suddenly, a few days before the 16th, my buzz into the mouthpiece went bad. My lips would not respond to the air flow unless I blew quite hard. But you can’t play every note of every bugle call or song at “FF” volume. I’d blow, and at first, only air would hiss through the horn before a note would suddenly burst out. It was sort of like stammering or stuttering, when the words just won’t come out of a person’s throat for a few seconds, followed by a shout. I’d lost the ability to fade out down to “pp” and softer. I’d lost some control of dynamics and the ability to express certain emotions through the horn.
At first, I thought it was simply stiff lips that had lost their flexibility from not enough practicing. I thought I could overcome it if I warmed up for at least 20 minutes. But no amount of warming up would eliminate it. On the 16th, my “Assembly” didn’t sound normal. I struggled a bit with “Echo Taps,” too. It didn’t help that I had to stand and play without my cane, hunched over from lower back pain.
So, should I cancel my show at The Bellettini? I love The Bellettini, the staff, and the residents. They had invited me back for the fifth time to present a new show which they had not yet heard.
I couldn’t bear the thought of canceling, even if I wouldn’t sound normal. I had three more practice days to improve. If I didn’t sound better, would they forgive me? Or would they walk out and never invite me back again?
Yamaha Allen Vizzutti, Bach 1.5C, 3C, 8C, and Getzen 3C, 7C trumpet mouthpieces
No amount of practicing changed things. I reached a certain level, and nothing improved beyond that. Then I hit on another idea: what about changing mouthpieces? Up to now, I’d been using only my favorite, the Allen Vizzutti mouthpiece by Yamaha. So, I broke out my entire (but small) collection of six trumpet mouthpieces and tried each one. I got the best results with my Bach 1.5C. Eureka!
I arrived quite early, set up, and went into a side room to warm up for a half hour. Then I came out and did the show—not normal. But no one walked out. They were very tolerant and forgiving, and besides, they were enjoying themselves. After all, we’re all in the same age group–we could be classmates!
Afterwards, numerous residents came up to thank me and say how much they enjoyed the two dozen songs from our era–such great songs with which they could sing along!
And then, a tall man came up, thanked me, and said in a kind voice, “It’s hard to play when the buzz won’t work right, isn’t it?” He said he used to play saxophone and luckily, with a reed mouthpiece, that problem can’t happen.
“Yes,” I said. “But they liked the music and had a good time.”
He agreed sympathetically and complimented me for doing my best on an off day. Was that really all it was—just an off day? I worried that my playing days might be over entirely. I might never play again in public. I simply knew that I would never let myself play like that again.
But the experience of those five days begged the question: what caused this problem? It had never happened to me since I began playing in fifth grade.
I thought, “It must be my two front teeth”—my central incisors in the upper jaw. You see, for those readers who are young, your teeth can start to migrate in old age. Mine had been slowing creeping toward the middle of my mouth for several years, so much so that the left front tooth had actually slid outside and over the right one. It was overlapping and pushing itself outward against my upper lip, and it was probably also pushing the right tooth backwards toward my tongue.
Is this TMI–“Too Much Information?” Well, how else will you know what to do when this happens to you? Keep reading…
I developed a new theory. The crooked front teeth were diverting the air flow, ruining my buzz. So, last January, I went to see my orthodontist, Dr. Zachton Lowe in Shoreline. He advised plastic aligners by Invisalign instead of metal braces. He said it would take about sixteen months to straighten all my teeth.
“Can I play ‘Taps’ on Memorial Day?” I asked.
“Yes, I think so.”
And so, I did! The Bellettini taught me a huge lesson. Please read all about my Memorial Day performances in two blog posts which are soon to be posted in a few days–but first, I’ll post next about the music on our spring trip to Italy and Paris.
Glenn Ledbetter warms up his bugle while using practice mute to muffle sound
For the first time, I used a cane to walk to my position for sounding “Assembly” and “Echo Taps” once more on my Getzen bugle at this, the 15th Annual Ceremony called Wreaths Across America (WAA). “Assembly” silences the crowd and opens the event. “Echo Taps” signals its conclusion. Just like two years ago, Laurence Stusser played the “echo” part on his trumpet with me (please see my blog article of 31 December 2021).
The cane was necessary, of course, because of my continuing sciatica nerve pain in my lower back and down my leg. But that was not my only trouble at this performance.
Photo by Glenn Ledbetter
I noticed that I was suddenly having some trouble with articulation, slotting, and tone control. It puzzled me. Nothing like this had ever happened since I originally began playing my cornet in fifth grade! At this writing, however, in hindsight, I now know what was causing the problems. More in subsequent blog articles.
For more information about WAA and past ceremonies, simply use the Search box in the upper right column. Search keywords “Wreaths” and “Wreath-Laying” for different results. Also, check out https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org and https://www.vfw1040.org.
All photos except two (as marked) are by Phil Onishi Photography. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
Outdoors at 9 a.m. on Saturday, 11 November, at VFW Eagleson Post 3063’s hall in Ballard, I sounded my first bugle call of the day, “Assembly.” It called to order their Flag Ceremony to dedicate the Post’s new flagpole. Two speeches followed, one by the Post Commander, Alyson Teeter, and the other by Harold Rodenberger, the Post’s legendary veteran. A plaque honoring Rodenberger was unveiled.
As the old, worn flag was lowered, I sounded “Retreat.” Then, as the new, crisp flag was raised, I sounded “To the Color.” Afterwards, the Post hosted an open house (please see https://vfwseattle.org/). Those were the first three of seven bugle calls that I sounded during the day, using my Getzen Field Trumpet (i.e., bugle).
Joseph Fitzgerald invited me to do this. He’s a good friend and a former student of mine (see my blog post of 17 November 2017 in the Archives in the left column). He is Captain of the Post’s Color Guard and a former Commander of Post 3063. By the way, the Post “willingly accepts for proper disposal all United States Flags that are no longer wanted or are worn and no longer fit for display.” The Post’s name honors Lt. James Mills Eagleson, Army, WWI, who died in 1919 (please see https://www.facebook.com/uwlibscimed/posts/696495093858841).
Veterans Park, Lynnwood
Pvt. Walter A. Deebach, WWI
At 11 a.m., I again sounded “Assembly,” calling to order the annual Veterans Day ceremony, hosted by VFW Post 1040 in the City’s Veterans Park in downtown Lynnwood. As the Post’s Bugler, I’ve been doing this since 2011. Performing several songs on his bagpipe was Kyle Gaul, Piper. To end the ceremony, Laurence Stusser and I sounded “Echo Taps.”
This post honors Walter A. Deebach, Sr. in its name. He was a WWI Army private who fought in France and Germany and suffered lung damage from mustard gas used by the Germans. He was the leader in founding Post 1040. Please see an article by his daughter at https://myedmondsnews.com/2014/11/looking-back-father-walter-deebach-wwi/. She writes that in 1943, he was appointed “Director of the VFW’s Rehabilitation and Service Department for the State of Washington, with his office in Seattle. For the next 25 years, until his retirement in 1968 at the age of 70, assisting veterans and/or their survivors was his work.”
Fairwinds, Brighton Court, Lynnwood
At 2 p.m., I opened my trumpet show with a march, “British Grenadiers,” that is more than 300 years old. This was my fifth performance at this retirement community. I have six one-hour trumpet shows, and when retirement communities celebrate the military, as on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day, Armed Forces Day, and others, someone always invites me to perform “I Stand for the Flag.” It consists of 24 patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I wear my VFW Post 1040 uniform.
The two bugle calls in this show are my favorites [besides “Taps”]–“Sunset” (British) and “Tattoo” (American). When I started the show, there were about 20 people in attendance. By the time it ended, the audience had doubled. I felt like “The Pied Piper.”
I got home about 4 p.m. It was a very satisfying Veterans Day. We owe so much to those who have served, do we not? As the saying goes, “If you eat your meals in peace, thank a Veteran. Freedom is not free.”
Every year when public demand peaks for a bugler/trumpeter, I’m happy to hop-skip-and-jump all over the Greater Seattle area to perform. This year, as usual, there were lots of opportunities surrounding Memorial Day. I sounded bugle calls at two venues and presented my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag” at three different retirement communities in four different cities:
26 May – Edmonds Community College (ECC) in Lynnwood – my sixth appearance
27 May – Skyline Towers in Seattle – second appearance
28 May – The Bellettini in Bellevue – first appearance
30 May – Veterans Park, Lynnwood – tenth appearance
30 May – Fairwinds Redmond – second appearance
At the ceremony at ECC, dressed in my VFW uniform, I sounded two bugle calls: “To the Color” inside the Black Box Theatre and “Taps” outside near the Boots to Books and Beyond monument. Native American Peter Ali improvised solos on two of his flutes twice during the ceremony.
At Skyline Towers retirement community in downtown Seattle, I performed my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag,” again in uniform. It is a collection of about two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I did the same show at The Bellettini in downtown Bellevue and at Fairwinds Redmond.
But before performing in the afternoon in Redmond on Memorial Day, I also sounded three bugle calls in the morning at Veterans Park in Lynnwood: “Assembly,” “Echo Taps,” and “To the Color.” Lukas Breen sounded the echo part in “Echo Taps.” He is an Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class on active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard, stationed in Everett. We both play Getzen bugles. Other musicians were a piper and drummer from the Northwest Junior Pipe Band, playing “Scotland the Brave,” “The Rowan Tree,” “Battle’s O’er,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Going Home.”
For more information about these venues, please go to these websites:
Volunteers lay more than 1,000 wreaths on Veterans’ graves at Evergreen-Washelli’s Veterans Cemetery. Photo by Phil Onishi Photography.
The third Saturday of December was the 18th, and that could mean only one thing to a bugler—it was time for the annual Christmas wreath-laying ceremony, Wreaths Across America (WAA). Never mind that it was raining steadily. At 9 a.m., the President and Executive Director of the Veterans Memorial Wreath Foundation, Lorraine Zimmerman, announced over the loud speaker, “Bugler, sound ‘Assembly!'” And so I did for the 11th time. Then the Color Guard of the Navy ROTC program at the University of Washington presented the colors, and the crowd of about 200 patriots pledged allegiance to the flag. Chaplain Linda Haptonstall gave the invocation.
MKC Noah Vogeli, U.S. Coast Guard
At about 9:15 came the main program segment, the Ceremonial Wreath Dedication. One by one, eight men placed and saluted small flags on eight wreaths in memory of and gratitude for those who have fallen in service to America. After the benediction, the Honor Guard of VFW Post 1040 of Lynnwood fired a three-volley rifle salute, immediately followed by “Echo Taps,” sounded by me and Laurence Stusser. He used his Olds trumpet, and I used my Getzen bugle. The colors were retired, and after the benediction by the Chaplin, this 13th annual ceremony concluded. Similar ceremonies were held at more than 3,100 locations nationwide on this day.
But the local event was not over—there was more to be done. The crowd voluntarily began laying 3,000 wreaths on the gravestones in the Veterans Memorial Park at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in north Seattle. VMWF has the ambitious goal of adorning all 5,000 veterans’ gravestones someday. To do that, more sponsors are needed. A donation of $15 sponsors one wreath; two, $30; five, $75 (most popular); ten, $150.
VMWF was founded not only to conduct this ceremony and lay these wreaths but also to teach coming generations about the cost and value of our freedom. VMWF plans to provide educational scholarships soon to military dependents and ROTC students. For more information, please see http://www.vmwf.org.
For the second year in a row, due to Covid restrictions, VFW Post 1040 performed a shortened, non-advertised Memorial Day commemoration ceremony at Veterans Park in Lynnwood. Normally, the ceremony would draw 200 or more people, and there would be music and speeches and presentations and honors and rifle salutes and “Taps” and more. It would take a half hour or more, and then at noon, the flag would be raised from half-staff to full-staff, accompanied by “To the Color” on the bugle.
This year, only the essentials were kept on the program:
“Amazing Grace” by Piper Kevin Auld and two members of the Northwest Junior Pipe Band;
“Armed Forces Medley” on the P.A. system;
Laying of the wreaths by Patricia McCarty and John Beam, Commander, VFW Post 1040;
The City of Lynnwood recorded it all (except the flag raising) in this 9:19-minute video (please see https://youtu.be/lWCOAdCS3Jg). As you’ll see and hear, I lead off with the bugle call, “Assembly,” on my Getzen Field Trumpet (bugle) and sound “Taps” at the 8:05-minute.
We’re all hoping that on Veterans Day, 11 November, we’ll be able to resume celebrating with the customary, full program involving more people and organizations, open to the public.
Glenn's Trumpet Notes 