I had an Uncle, Joe Holley, who lived in Augusta, GA, and who played trumpet his whole life. He played in jazz bands, and I understand he was something of a local star in that genre. In WWII, the War, his skills were applied and he played in the US Army band on Tinian, the island in the Pacific that the Enola Gay took off from. When I'd just started playing trumpet in Middle School, we called Uncle Joe up on the telephone, and I wanted to play something for him on trumpet that I'd learned. I went with something pretty simple that doesn't have too many notes -- Taps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taps). The line went silent on his end. After a little while, Uncle Joe told me that what I'd played was lovely, just perfect and all, but that he'd "hoped he would never have to hear that again." We'd lost a lot of guys my age-ish or youngerS off that island, every B-29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2AIZ80ALww) that went down was about 11 of them, and Uncle Joe had played Taps a lot. I didn't make it a couple evenings ago to National Cathedral's Veterans Tribute Concert, with wonderful performances by 'The President’s Own' Marine Chamber Orchestra, Washington National Cathedral Singers, and readings of selections from American War Letters, related to upcoming Veterans Day (http://www.nationalcathedral.org/webcasts/sunday_flv2.shtml). To be honest, it is may be just as well that I watched online from my apartment -- having just spent almost 4 years in Fayetteville, an Army town, having been myself several times only a circumstance or two away from serving during some difficult times for our military, and still having friends serving, including abroad, with whom I continue to share letters, or emails, or Facebook messages... some of all of this is still very, very close to the bone. I've heard that fewer and fewer Americans know anyone who is serving -- folks from Fayetteville, thankfully we don't have that problem. So thanks to veterans who served, cadets who were RIF'ed before they got the chance to serve, troops who got DADT'ed out while they were serving, folks who got DODMERB'ed (legitimately-ish or otherwise) out of serving, patriots whose service is still waiting for official recognition, and to those whose service is known to them alone. And Uncle Joe, here's something a bit happier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAVejLjXVdw Amen...-ish.