Lone Bugler Pays Tribute to Military

[Hoss68]

By KRISTA LARSON
Associated Press Writer
5/30/2004

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- For retired Army 1st Sgt. Richard J. Pinter, playing taps at military funerals is his way of helping the nation give its final salute to veterans.

After 38 years of playing taps, the man known as "The Lone Bugler" is all too aware that there are service members who never received the recognition - and the thought leaves him choking back tears.

"Our country owes them a debt of gratitude and the least that we could do is provide the most honorable service available to our veterans when they pass away," said Pinter, former bandmaster of the 276th Army Band, who retired from the military in 2000.

On Memorial Day weekend last year, the 63-year-old Pinter decided to try to show that gratitude by performing at more than a dozen cemeteries across the state. The response, he says, was overwhelming.

This year, he has scheduled more than 20 appearances, including a stop at the Battleship New Jersey Museum for a simulcast of Saturday's dedication of the National World War II Memorial in Washington.

On Monday alone, he will play from dawn until dusk at various memorials and cemeteries.

With at least 15 New Jerseyans killed in Iraq since the war began last year, this Memorial Day will be a particularly meaningful one, he said.

"It's a very solemn thing to me and it's very important," he said. "It's that time when a family member gets to reflect on the services that that veteran willfully gave to our country and when taps is being played, there's nothing else going on. It's just a time of reflection, it's a time of remembrance, it's a time of appreciation and gratitude for these people."

It's been estimated that only 500 bugle players remain in U.S. military bands - not nearly enough, Pinter says, to pay proper tribute in the years ahead to all the aging veterans of World War II, Korea and the Vietnam era.

A 2000 law allows veterans at least two service members for a flag presentation and a bugler to play taps at free military funerals. But these days many funerals have only a recorded bugle performance or an electronic bugle - options Pinter finds unbearable.

"In all my 38 years of performing at funerals, I never had a family come up to me and say, `I would prefer a boom box or a mimic gadget as opposed to you,'" he said.

There is no shortage of demand for his services. Pinter's commitments include bugler for a local American Legion post and official bugler for the Korean Memorial at Penns Landing in Philadelphia. And it's his personal mission to do more.

"The void will never be filled," he said. "When I drive down the road and I see a cemetery that looks like it's been there for years and years, I wonder in the back of my mind if `Taps' was ever played in that cemetery."

Pinter's cousin, Lou Salamon, who as an Army private first class in World War II participated in the Normandy invasion on Omaha Beach, on Friday attended a community veterans recognition event where Pinter played.

"It's a good reminder," said Salamon, 82. "You don't forget all those little white crosses out there."

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On the Net:

The Lone Bugler: http://azmusiccenter.com/Lone.html

[USMC5831]

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