U.S. Military Bugler Shortage

[Artisan]

Down boy. The idea is that they simply don't have enough buglers. More can be trained, but that takes time - so this is how they're taking up the slack in the meantime. They know it's not as good, but probably figure it's better than nothing. I still like the idea of allowing the option of veterans to play.

No need to get testy - I'm only criticising the people who thought this was a swell idea, not the entirety of the military industrial complex.

IMO, its a budget issue - plain and simple: We're talking bugle here. Maybe Dar Tanyon can weigh in on what it takes to train a horn player to blow a bugle. Otherwise its hard for me to see how the time and expense of developing a product from scratch just to take up slack in the meantime makes sense. A typical plastic toy with a microprocessor can cost a million bucks and 12 months to develop. If done on the cheap how many bugle players can be trained in 6 months for $500k ? But if its for a permanent solution, then hardware usually outperform humans for years to come ecomically speaking.

Besides - read the press release carefully:

"With only some 500 buglers on active duty on any given day, but with about 1,800 people with military service who are eligible for honors ceremonies passing away each day the Pentagon had a real problem on its hands. So the Defense Department worked with S&D Consulting to invent the “ceremonial bugle”. S&D Consulting turned to SKB, known for their durable band instrument cases and previous military contracts."

"According to news bulletins that have appeared on CNN, the military has been struggling for years to cope with its shortage of musicians for funerals,”

Sounds more like a long term fix to an intractable problem: Replace the talent with a piece of hardware instead of flying a few buglers around, or putting a skilled bugler into every local honor guard. Makes sense from a business standpoint - but....

[fencerjim]

I have to agree with Artisan. Especialy when it comes to shoving something up a bureaucrats horn. Interpetly speaking of course. Ha! that was rich Artisan.

[Soldier]

No need to get testy - I'm only criticising the people who thought this was a swell idea, not the entirety of the military industrial complex.

IMO, its a budget issue - plain and simple: We're talking bugle here. Maybe Dar Tanyon can weigh in on what it takes to train a horn player to blow a bugle. Otherwise its hard for me to see how the time and expense of developing a product from scratch just to take up slack in the meantime makes sense. A typical plastic toy with a microprocessor can cost a million bucks and 12 months to develop. If done on the cheap how many bugle players can be trained in 6 months for $500k ? But if its for a permanent solution, then hardware usually outperform humans for years to come ecomically speaking.

Besides - read the press release carefully:

"With only some 500 buglers on active duty on any given day, but with about 1,800 people with military service who are eligible for honors ceremonies passing away each day the Pentagon had a real problem on its hands. So the Defense Department worked with S&D Consulting to invent the “ceremonial bugle”. S&D Consulting turned to SKB, known for their durable band instrument cases and previous military contracts."

"According to news bulletins that have appeared on CNN, the military has been struggling for years to cope with its shortage of musicians for funerals,”

Sounds more like a long term fix to an intractable problem: Replace the talent with a piece of hardware instead of flying a few buglers around, or putting a skilled bugler into every local honor guard. Makes sense from a business standpoint - but....

Alright, thanks for the clarification. If they are indeed just trying to save expense by replacing buglers, then yes, shove it up their figurative horn.

If they are just trying to meet the current gap (how I originally read it), then I don't see any problem with it.