Sad to hear, but the gentleman did spend his last days in "almost heaven" West Virginia.

TAPS

Taps Lyrics:

Day is done,
gone the sun,
from the lakes
from the hills
from the sky,
all is well,
safely, rest,
God is near.

Fading light,
Dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky
Gleaming bright,
From afar,
Drawing, near,
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise,
For our days,
Neath the sun
Neath the stars
Neath the sky,
As we go,
This, we, know,
God is near.


History of Taps:
The 24-note bugle call known as "taps" is thought to be a revision of a French bugle signal, called "tattoo," that notified soldiers to cease an evening's drinking and return to their barracks or garrisons. It was sounded one hour before the bugle call that brought the military day to an end by ordering the extinguishing of fires and lights. The last five measures of the tattoo resemble the modern day "Taps."

The word "taps" is an alteration of the obsolete word "taptoo," derived from the Dutch "taptoe." Taptoe was the command -- "Tap toe!" -- to shut ("toe to") the "tap" of a keg.

The revision that gave us present-day taps was made during America 's Civil War by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. Up to that time, the U.S. Army's infantry call to end the day was the French final call, "L'Extinction des feux." Gen. Butterfield decided the "lights out" music was too formal to signal the day's end. One day in July 1862, he recalled the tattoo music and hummed a version of it to an aide, who wrote it down in music. Butterfield then asked the brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton, to play the notes and, after listening, lengthened and shortened them while keeping his original melody.

He ordered Norton to play this new call at the end of each day thereafter, instead of the regulation call. The music was heard and appreciated by other brigades, who asked for copies and adopted this bugle call. It was even adopted by Confederate buglers. This music was made the official Army bugle call after the war, but not given the name "taps" until 1874.

The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery's position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies. Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services and is still used to signal "lights out" at day's end.

"The last doughboy deserves many honors
Frank Buckles, 110, was a reminder of the horrors of two world wars

Frank Woodruff Buckles, who witnessed firsthand the horrors of two world wars, slipped quietly and peacefully into the next world on Sunday night.

At 110, he was the last American veteran of World War I to die.

Buckles had lied about his age to enlist and served as an ambulance driver in Europe. He was one of 4,743,826 American soldiers - doughboys - who served in the war.

The young corporal was safe from the fighting, but he later said: "I saw the results."

Buckles was not so lucky in the next war. A civilian, he was captured in the Philippines by the Japanese and served three years as a civilian prisoner of war.

He weighed just 80 pounds when liberated.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and the rest of the West Virginia delegation are working to have Buckles' body lie in repose in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

President Obama ordered that flags be flown at half-staff on the day of Buckles' internment at Arlington National Cemetery, an honor which itself required special permission, as he was not a combat veteran.

Yet in a way, he was.

Buckles' final campaign was for the expansion of the District of Columbia War Memorial at the National Mall into a national World War I memorial. Ground was broken on that project in October.

His work ensures that he and those millions of his comrades most certainly will be remembered.

This is as it should be.

The horrors of World War I should never be forgotten. It was a long and bloody meat grinder of trench and chemical warfare.

But the post-war disarmament of the War to End All Wars failed to produce the lasting peace that was sought. This resulted in World War II.

Frank Buckles has found peace at last. He has joined the other 4,743,825 Americans who served in the Great War, including 116,708 who died in it, some while still in their teenage years.

Buckles' long life is a reminder of all the young men who did not become fathers or teachers or doctors or statesmen or farmers.

That is what we should honor, along with the man."

Editorials, Wednesday March 2, 2011
http://www.dailymail.com/Opini...0?page=1&build=cache