Not only was this my first performance of my one-hour trumpet show [I have six different shows] at the Sunrise of Mercer Island retirement community, but also it was the first time I’ve ever been asked for my autograph! Ha, who am I?—Mickey Mantle? Joe Montana? Beethoven? Louis Armstrong? Nope. Just an ancient trumpet player, as old as dirt.
After I performed “I Stand for the Flag,” a lady in the front row handed me a pen and one of my handouts, so I happily signed it. Maybe I should have my survivors engrave that on my tombstone: “He signed one autograph.” Success!
Another elderly lady in a wheelchair rolled up to me and said, “I’m 100 years old, and that was the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard!”
Well, anyway, what a kick in the pants it was for me on the 248th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps (10 November) and the day before Veterans Day 2023!
The resident capacity of this retirement community is only 48, and about 15 (~one third) attended my show. Two are Veterans, one Army and one Army Air Corps, WWII. And my goodness, did they all earnestly sing and hum along with me, as I played 24 patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I used four horns, my Getzen trumpet and bugle, Super Olds cornet, and Austin Custom Brass (ACB) flugelhorn. They asked, so I explained the similarities and differences among them. At the end, we stood, said The Pledge of Allegiance, and rendered the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
Afterwards, they told the staff member who assisted me that they wanted me to come back for another show. What more could any old performer want—requests for both an autograph and a return performance? I’ll take that any day. “Play it again, Sam.”
This was my fifth performance at Fairwinds, Brighton Court (FBC) in Lynnwood–the most, so far, at any of the 29 retirements communities in the Greater Seattle area where I have presented at least one of my six trumpet shows!
Glenn Ledbetter plays “You’re a Grand Old Flag” on his Jupiter pocket trumpet.
The occasion, this time, was Flag Day, the 14th of June 2023. Flag Day commemorates the adoption on 14 June 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress, of the USA flag. The idea of celebrating this event was born in 1885. For more information about Flag Day, please use the Archives column to the left to see my blog post of 16 July 2019.
At FBC, I performed my show, “I Stand for the Flag,” which consists of about two dozen patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls. I used four instruments: my Getzen trumpet and bugle, Super Olds Cornet, and Jupiter pocket trumpet. With the trumpet, bugle and pocket trumpet, I used my Yamaha Allen Vizzutti mouthpiece, and with my cornet, I used to two mouthpieces, a Denis Wick 4 and Bach 8C.
The Holmes family was proud, among other many other things, that Loren Montgomery (“Monty”) Holmes was a veteran. They wanted a live bugler (not a taped recording) to sound “Taps” at his memorial service to be held in the chapel at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home in north Seattle on Sunday, 7 May.
Where can you find a good, live bugler? The funeral director, Stacie Sandritter, contacted VFW Post 1040 in Lynnwood for a referral. The call then passed to me, the Post Bugler. Eureka—networking works again!
As I listened to the pastor, family members, and friends pay tribute to Monty, I learned that he was a man of action and experience, with many interests and skills. He was indeed the patriarch of those who were close to him. They spoke in high praise of his great influence for good. Apparently, he was an open, friendly man with standards and a temper but also one with a good sense of humor who inspired others and did not hold a grudge. They spoke of his faith and love.
After graduating from Ballard High School, he played football for the semi-Pro team, “Seattle Ramblers,” and he served in the U.S. Army Reserve at Fort Lawton (now Discovery Park in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle). He was the original owner of Athletic Awards Co. in Seattle where it still stands today.
He was born 29 November 1929, and died on 8 April 2023–going on 94 years of age! He was interred on 9 May 2023 at Evergreen Memorial Park (see http://www.Washelli.com).
Inside the Chapel at the close of the memorial service, I used my Getzen bugle to sound “Taps” and afterwards, rendered the slow hand-salute for another comrade who has passed. It was the 231st time that I’ve been honored to do it.
Until this year, I’d never been asked to perform my one-hour trumpet show, “I Stand for the Flag,” on Armed Forces Day. But that changed when Mindy Milton, Active Living Program Director, booked me to return for the second time to Merrill Gardens at the University in Seattle on Saturday, 21 May 2022. (Please see my blog article of 15 August 2021.)
I played 24 patriotic marches, songs, and bugle calls on four instruments: my Getzen trumpet, Super Olds cornet, Getzen field trumpet (bugle), and Jupiter pocket trumpet. The repertoire includes “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” “Tattoo” (a bugle call), the official songs of all five branches, “The Liberty Bell” (a march by John Philip Sousa), “Over There,” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” The audience sang along and laughed at a few jokes.
How does Armed Forces Day differ from other military holidays and observance days? It celebrates all five branches of the military on the third Saturday of May, annually. The five branches are the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The first four are within the Department of Defense (DOD), created in 1947. The Coast Guard is within the Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002. The Space Development Agency is one of many agencies within the DOD.
Armed Forces Day was created on 31 August 1949 when Harry S. Truman was President. It was first celebrated on 20 May 1950—five years after WWII ended and one month before the beginning of the Korean War.
The longest, continuously-running, Armed Forces Day Parade in the USA is held in Bremerton, Washington. This year, Bremerton celebrated its 73rd Armed Forces Day Parade.
Major wars and conflicts in which the U.S. military participated:
Revolutionary War
Indian Wars of the 1790s
War of 1812
American Civil War
Spanish-American War of 1898
World War I
World War II
Korean War
Vietnam War
Gulf War
Afghanistan
Numerical facts:
About 800 military bases outside the U.S.
About 1.2 million active-duty personnel in the U.S. military
About 800,000 reserves
About 18 million living veterans
More than 81,600 POW/MIA personnel, mostly from WWII
Photos are courtesy of Merrill Gardens at the University. Please click on any photo to enlarge it.
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.
Courtesy of Overlake Terrace Assisted & Senior Living
This spring, Overlake Terrace Assisted & Senior Living, a retirement community in Redmond, invited me back for a second trumpet show, 28 months after my first performance there shortly before Christmas in 2018 (please see my blog post of 23 December 2018 in the Archives in left column). Then Covid shut everything down, everywhere in 2020.
That first show was “Things Remembered,” featuring mostly Christmas carols and songs. This one, on 23 April, was “Showtune Favorites,” featuring hit songs from musicals and movies. I have six different shows, each with about two dozen familiar songs from the residents’ era.
For these shows, I use my Getzen trumpet, Super Olds cornet, Jupiter pocket trumpet, and (sometimes) Getzen bugle.
On Memorial Day, 31 May, I’ll be back there again in my VFW uniform, to sound “Taps” at their ceremony. I’ll use my beautiful Getzen bugle.
Bugler, VFW Post 1040, Lynnwood, WA. Photo by CPO Ronald A. Jones, LAC-USV-JSC.
Bugler, Boy Scout Troop 312, Edmonds, WA. Photo by CPO Ronald A. Jones, LAC-USV-JSC.
President Barack Obama proclaimed 29 May 2012 as Vietnam Veterans Day, and by law in 2017, it became National Vietnam War Veterans Day. To my chagrin, both events slipped by me, a Vietnam War Veteran and a member of both the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and VVA (Vietnam Veterans Association). I first heard of it when I was asked to sound “Echo Taps” at the Shoreline Veterans Recognition Plaza on 27 March 2021, two days before the official date (29th).
Col David Gibson, USAF (Ret.), Keynote Speaker. Photo by CPO Ronald A. Jones, LAC-USV-JSC.
The keynote speaker, Col. David Gibson, USAF (Ret.), a Vietnam veteran, spoke of the Three Big Lies about the Vietnam War; the politically-driven, overly restrictive Rules of Engagement; and the imperative that America never enter a war without the intent and will to win it. He delivered his own “Welcome Home” message to the Vietnam veterans attending this ceremony. [“9-11” radically changed the American people’s attitude toward our military.]
L to R: Joe Fitzgerald, Commander, VFW Post 3063, ballard; Bugler, Boy Scout Troop 312, Edmonds; and Glenn Ledbetter, VFW Post 1040, Lynnwood. Joe is the original owner of the bugle, gifted by Honor Guard, VFW Post 1040, to the Scout.
Who would join me, as VFW Post 1040 Bugler, and sound the “Echo” part of “Taps”? The same Boy Scout from Troop 312 in Edmonds who did it with me at this same place on Independence Day last year (please see my previous post of 29 July 2020). This year, however, he played the “Echo” on his Getzen bugle, not his trumpet. And thereby hangs a tale.
Our scout has often sounded “Taps” at funeral services with the Post 1040 Honor Guard. That was suspended, however, when, last August, he had a terrible accident on his mountain bike. He took a jump on the trail and crashed. His injuries were quite serious and have taken all these many months to heal. Frank Martinez, Commander of the Honor Guard of VFW Post 1040, polled the members for ideas of a gift we could present to the boy. I suggested a bugle and found one, a beauty, owned by Joe Fitzgerald, Commander of VFW Post 3063 in Ballard. We had it engraved, “HONOR GUARD – VFW POST 1040” and presented it to him. He loves it, as I do mine (see my post of 4 May 2015). These bugles play so easily with such a beautiful, full, solid tone.
ECHO TAPS
Covid-19 put the clamps on most of my performances in public for a whole year. The church orchestra in which I play is still on hold after the original lockdown in March 2020 cancelled in-person services. Same for performances of my one-hour trumpet shows at retirement communities–they all cancelled their weekly musical entertainment hours. I no longer drove to my clients’ homes to teach private trumpet lessons. We switched to online Zoom lessons. Throughout the 2020 summer, I did no busking in Edmonds to raise money for the VFW. Skyview Middle School, where I teach beginning trumpet class, also switched to Zoom instructrion in the fall.
Only now are things opening up a little. Now that I’ve had my two Modera vaccination shots for Covid, I’m booked at several retirement communities again, playing one or another of my six trumpet shows. And several military ceremonies are coming up–Armed Forces Day (15 May), Memorial Day (31 May), Flag Day (14 June), and Independence Day (4 July). We’re easing back into performances, and that means I’ll be posting here again, starting with this one.
Photos are by Joe Fitzgerald, Richard Rees, and CPO Ronald A. Jones, LAC-USV-JSC.
Hand salute during “Echo Taps.” Photo by CPO Ronald A. Jones, LAC-USV-JSC.
Symphony Ames, singer of the National Anthem and “God Bless America.” Photo by Joe Fitzgerald.
VFW Post 1040 Honor Guard awaits the ceremony. Photo by Joe Fitzgerald.
Rev. Greg Asimakoupoulos, Chaplain, Covenant Living at the Shores (CLS), Mercer Island, asked for a video of me playing “Taps,” so he could include it in the 2020 Memorial Day ceremony at this prestigious, waterfront retirement community. The ceremony had to be virtual, of course, because of Covid-19 restrictions on the limited size of gatherings. The staff would integrate my video into their longer, ceremonial video.
So I chose to make my video among the 5,000 military gravestones in Veterans Cemetery at Evergreen-Washelli in north Seattle, where seven recipients of the Medal of Honor are buried. Nancy MacDonald, a lifelong family friend of Greg, recorded the video below on Friday, 15 May. Please turn on your sound and click on the Play arrow for this “Taps.” The video will rotate itself correctly when it begins to play.
“Taps” at Veterans Cemetery, Evergreen-Washelli, Seattle
To view the complete video, “Memorial Day Service of Remembrance,” at CLS, including my “Taps” on my Getzen bugle (at the end, minute 57:35), please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7mI7VbRTw&feature=youtu.be ((almost one hour and two minutes).
Glenn's Trumpet Notes 