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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The ripple on the waters of Clear Lake at Lakeport's Library Park and the sound waves made by the trumpets of Lake County Military Funeral Honors Team buglers L. Boyd Green and William “Bill” Vann blended perfectly for their resonant version of “Taps.”
Only a few days earlier the two men had performed their unique echoing call to rest in the solemnity of Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C., the nation's most hallowed ground where the late President John F. Kennedy was honored in a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death this past week.
They also played in a spot overlooking the Rose Garden and at the gravesite of Green's ancestor, John Green, who was among the first soldiers in George Washington's Army to be buried at Arlington.
Green and Vann, who have played “Taps” together at close to 1,000 military funerals for Lake County's fallen and other ceremonies, were among 100 buglers present.
“It was cold and wet with buglers from all over America,” said Vann. “But Arlington is really a beautiful place and it was such a thrill to be there. There was a lot of patriotism, that's for sure.”
Green and Vann brought a lot of patriotism with them on their trip to Washington.
Militarily, Green served a four-year hitch in the Air Force and Vann was forced to abandon his plan of becoming a career soldier after six and a half years.
“A .50-calibre machine gun smashed my foot,” he said.
But their lengthy volunteerism in honoring the county's war veterans more than speaks to their dedication.
Both have ample heritage in serving the country. Green's 92-year-old brother-in-law is one of the rare survivors of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. His grandson formerly served in the Marines.
“My father was a crew member of a B29 bombing Normandy,” said Vann. “I have an uncle who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Korean War, another uncle who was in Vietnam, and a brother who was in the Army. So it kind of runs in the family.”
The two men's eternal connection to playing “Taps” at military funerals and ceremonies is a matter meriting consideration for Guinness or Ripley.
Most especially Green, who says he played “Taps” for the first time at a military funeral when he was 10 years old – although he would not confirm Vann's estimate that he has played at 20,000 events in the 68 years since then.
“That seems a little bit high, but I managed the American Legion, DAV (Disabled American Veterans) and the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) in the town of Greeley, Colorado, and played not every day, but every week,” said Green.
A Nebraskan, Green learned to play the trumpet from three brothers who were boyhood friends and their father.
“I stopped counting at a thousand I can't remember when,” said Vann with regard to how many times he has played “Taps” at a ceremony.
“It's nothing like Boyd's done. He would be a hard act to follow,” added Vann, who is 27 years younger than Green. “I travel with different organizations like 'Bugles Across America.' There are 7,000 (buglers) around the country.”
Vann's dedication runs so deep that he showed up for one military funeral in a wheelchair.
He first learned to play the trumpet as a youth in San Mateo and Alabama, where his father once share-cropped and where he was first trumpet in his high school band.
Both men acknowledged that, with the dwindling number of buglers in the country, they are “dinosaurs.”
And both are adamantly opposed to fake renderings of “Taps” at military funerals on what have come to be known as “digital trumpets” that are increasingly being used because of the shortage of real buglers.
Instead of a bugler playing the 24 notes of “Taps,” a computerized chip implanted in the horn renders the song. A push of a button starts the horn.
“I think it's a disservice and so do the people who were there at Arlington,” said Green.
“It just reeks of dishonor,” says Vann. “I've been at a funeral where the bugle player pushed a button and it played reveille. And I've had people (with fake bugles) tell me, 'Hey, I'm the bugler.' And I'll say, 'If you're the bugler you're not going to be going to a military funeral sounding like that ... no, you're not a bugler.'”
For Green and Vann, each ceremony provides an opportunity to play “Taps” once more with feeling. For them, that feeling never gets old.
“You wouldn't believe how many times we're crying when we're playing,” Vann asserted. “I'd say 70 percent of the time. The reason for 'Taps' in my opinion is to help a family get through their mourning. So from the time I hit that first note till I get to the end if I have touched them with my playing I have helped them to begin recovering. If you do it right, when you get to that last note they can now carry on.”
It may be a while before a Lake Countian participates to the level Green and Vann did at the memorial for Kennedy at Arlington.
“It was the 50th anniversary of JFK's death,” said Vann. “It won't happen again.”
Editor's note: A video of parts of the Arlington event, which honored both Kennedy and his bugler, Keith Clark, can be seen below. At the 5:40 minute mark, bagpipers play, followed by the buglers.
Email John Lindblom at
