This is what the government gets for so often cutting music instruction out of the schools:

Pentagon Approves Push-Button Bugle

Chronically short of musicians for military funerals, the Pentagon has approved the use of a push-button bugle that plays taps by itself as the operator holds it to his lips.

Only about 500 buglers are on active duty on any given day, but about 1,800 people who have seen military service die each day and are eligible for honors ceremonies, said Air Force Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin, a Pentagon spokeswoman. So the Defense Department worked with private industry to invent the "ceremonial bugle," which has a small digital recording device inserted into its bell. The vast majority of families endorsed its use in a six-month test from November to May in Missouri, where 50 prototypes were distributed to military units and others who provide funeral honors, the Pentagon said in a statement. A real bugler will be used when available. Otherwise, the family of the deceased service member will be offered the ceremonial bugle as an alternative to pre-recorded taps, often played on a boom box. Use of the $500 instrument "is intended to enhance the dignity of military funeral honors," the Pentagon said.

(Washington Post 090603)