The Broken Note

To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself.
-Simone Weil

In observance of Memorial Day...the Broken Note:

Listen to taps being played (after the firing of three volleys) at John F. Kennedy's funeral. Sergeant Keith Clark was the principal bugler of the U.S. Army Band and had sounded taps a few weeks earlier on Veteran's Day at Arlington with President Kennedy at his side. But on November 25, 1963 at Kennedy's burial "... the notes resounded over all assembled, though in Clark's mind the call was sounded only for the widow, Jacqueline Kennedy." He cracked a note, like a stifled sob.

Some say it was the cold that caused it, Clark said he missed the note because he was under pressure and in the weeks that followed, it is said that the same note was missed by other buglers at Arlington. Whatever the cause, the effect is what we're left to observe.

Read the story: the Broken Note.

Photo:Akuman1