Memorial Day is Monday, May 25, and the holiday weekend has always served as our official gateway to summer on St. Simons Island. It’s a time when we honor our heroes and also celebrate the freedoms that their sacrifices have afforded us. We may not be able to gather in the ways we’re used to, but we can still observe our holiday traditions.
Memorial Day
Taps at Twilight
For the past 29 years, the community has observed Memorial Day with the Taps at Twilight program on Monday evening in Neptune Park. This moving and meaningful tradition presented by the St. Simons Island Rotary Club provides the opportunity to honor the men and women who have fallen in service to our country, as well as recognize those who have valiantly served and returned and those who are serving today. This year, however, due to the national pandemic and restrictions on large gatherings, the Rotary Club was required to come up with an alternative to the traditional format.
St. Simons Rotary wants to ensure social distancing, but realizes the challenge given the large crowds that typically gather at Neptune Park for this event. “However, the Club feels strongly that now, more than ever, the Golden Isles needs an opportunity to share the important meaning of the day, to remember the values this country holds dear, and to pay tribute, albeit virtually,” says
Trumpet
Beth Smith, President. “These days, we are all learning to do things a little differently!”
Taps at Twilight will be broadcast on Golden Isles TV, Ch. 98 and available for virtual viewing online, giving the community many ways to access the “broadcast” and come together to share this important moment. The program will continue with the many traditions everyone has come to anticipate: posting of the colors, a wreath presentation, a recognized speaker from the armed services, patriotic music by local and nationally recognized musicians, and the playing of “Taps.” An exciting new addition this year will be a cannon volley from the tall ship, Lynx, prior to the posting of the colors. This year’s tribute will be dedicated to Ret. U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Clint Winnie, Jr., a highly decorated combat pilot who passed away last December, after making St. Simons his home for over 20 years.
St. Simons Rotary is making plans to ensure this program will be available to everyone in the community and that we can all share the moment together, albeit remotely. For further information regarding guest speakers and musicians and details on how and when to tune in, visit ssirotary.org, and follow social media.
UPDATE: This beautiful virtual Memorial Day Tribute will include a fly-over, canon shot from bow of the Lynx, patriotic music by Stan Moran, Michael Hulett, Owen Plant and special performance by Country Western singer Billy Dean at 6:45pm. Share with friends and neighbors on the SSI Rotary’s YouTube channel & Golden Isles TV Ch. 98.
The Power of 24 Notes
Of course, Taps at Twilight always concludes the playing of “Taps.” According to Jari Villanueva, a “Taps” historian and a retired trumpeter for the United States Air Force Band, the "Taps" bugle call as we know it today was inspired by an earlier call used prior to the Civil War. That call, “Extinguish Lights,” came from the French as early as the 1800s, and was used as the signal for
Taps
soldiers to turn out the lights and retire for the night. In 1862, General Daniel Butterfield called upon his brigade bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, to revise the bugle call into something less formal. The 24 notes that make up “Taps” were the result.
Villanueva recounts that the call extended from regular use as a daily “lights out” signal to a military funeral tradition when, shortly after the song was revised, a captain named John Tidball decided to use it instead of firing the customary three volleys over the grave during a funeral in one of the artillery companies. He was worried that firing the volleys might be a signal to the enemy that fighting would resume. Following the Civil War, the playing of “Taps” and the three volley salute became the standard for military funerals. Accordingly, it has become a custom to recognize fallen soldiers on Memorial Day and Veterans Day with those poignant 24 notes.
