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Veterans Day events
Wednesday
FORT WORTH — The annual Veterans Day Parade will begin at 10 a.m. at LaGrave Field and go south on North Main Street to downtown before returning to LaGrave. This year’s theme is Honoring the Military History of Fort Worth. Many veterans will review the 5,000 parade participants, including veterans posts members, patriotic floats and school drill teams and bands. The review stand will be on Main between Third and Fourth streets. Taps will be sounded at 11 a.m.
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS — Military and civic leaders will celebrate at 11 a.m. with music from Fort Worth Christian students and remarks by Col. David McMinn, commander of the 136th Airlift Wing of the Texas Air National Guard. The ceremony will take place at Liberty Park, 5825 Holiday Lane, where a 21-foot monument to veterans was dedicated in 2005.
SAGINAW — A dedication of the Veterans Memorial at Kiwanis Park will begin at 5:30 p.m. The Parks Advisory Board will sell bricks that can be engraved with an veteran’s name and installed at the memorial, on the south side of Fire Station No. 1 on Saginaw Boulevard. Information: www.ci.saginaw.tx.us.
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He stood alone on a grassy hill, the sun glinting off his trumpet.
Below, a family huddled in grief.All eyes fixed on two uniformed soldiers, facing each other as they worked in ceremonial silence, their gloved hands reverently folding, caressing and shaping the American flag into a small tight triangle.A blue pillow with white stars.The trumpeter said a silent prayer.He prayed for the deceased, Harold Baker, a 60-year-old Vietnam veteran, and his tearful loved ones.Steve Kalowski also prayed about his solemn duty, now at hand.There are no do-overs at the committal services staged, one after another, all day, every weekday at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, a garden of stones. The trumpeter drew a breath and lifted the Bach Stradivarius to his lips.The melody is only 24 notes and takes less than a minute to play.But to perform the mournful bugle call flawlessly is never an easy task. On Nov. 25, 1963, a bugler with the U.S. Army Band was assigned to sound taps at Arlington National Cemetery near the grave site of John F. Kennedy three days after the president was assassinated. Sgt. Keith Clark, on the world stage, cracked the sixth note.Author William Manchester likened the sound to "a catch in your voice, or a swiftly stifled sob."On this autumn day Kalowski squared his shoulders. Hazel eyes gazing at some distant point, he sounded taps as it should be. Slowly. Tenderly. Each brass note rang out, as clear as the cool morning air.The bugle call, which dates to the Civil War, beckons us to remember patriots who served our county with honor and valor. Day is done, gone the sunFrom the lakes, from the hills,From the skyAll is well, safely restGod is nighThe trumpeter held the last note — held it — until it dimmed like a dying candle flame, and faded out.EpiphanyIn 2002, Kalowski attended the funeral of his father-in-law, an Air Force veteran. Seated with family members, he listened as a bugler sounded taps, those familiar timeless notes wafting across Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, south of Chicago.That moment touched him in a profound way."How come I’m not doing that?" he asked himself.Kalowski later learned that the musician belonged to a volunteer organization called Bugles Across America.By law, every eligible veteran is entitled to a military-honors funeral that consists of the folding and presentation of the flag and a rendition of taps. With Americans fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, with veterans dying at a remarkable rate, an average of 1,800 every day, horn players are in short supply.A recording of taps is played at more than 70 percent of committal services at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.Tom Day, a World War II veteran, founded Bugles Across America with the goal to provide a live bugler to sound taps at every veteran’s funeral. Day believes that a recording of the bugle call — in some instances, blared through a boombox — is undignified and doesn’t properly honor veterans for their sacrifice to the country.
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