Today at 3 p.m., my dad and my middle child both played Taps, 175 miles apart. It was a long-distance duet, of sorts; my dad played outside the apartment building where he and my mom live in Alexandria, for a physically distanced crowd of about 20 friends and neighbors, and Sebastian played from our front porch in Northfield, for the enjoyment of Steve, Elias, me, and anyone else in the neighborhood who happened to hear it.

Sebastian playing from our porch in Northfield, MN

My mom and dad in Alexandria, MN

Dad and Sebastian were not the only ones playing Taps today. In fact, I'd guess it resounded from more places than usual this year. Due to COVID-19, CBS News "On the Road" correspondent Steve Hartman teamed up with retired U.S. Air Force bugler Jari Villanueva to encourage people across the country to perform the bugle call at 3 p.m. today from their porches, front lawns, driveways, wherever they could maintain a safe distance from listeners in an event called "Taps Across America" (those of you who have attended the four-day Vintage Band Festival likely have heard Villanueva perform here in Northfield with one of his bands).

The annual National Moment of Remembrance asks Americans, wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, to pause for one minute to remember those who have died in military service to the United States.

My dad plays Taps every year, although he usually does it at the local cemetery. Performing in Memorial Day services was also an annual tradition for his paternal grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs. G. Oliver's father, Jasper Riggs, fought in the Civil War with the 45th Illinois Infantry, and I'm sure that influenced G. Oliver's feeling about the importance of having his bands participate.

Toward the end of my great-grandfather's life, many of his St. Cloud Municipal Band boys enlisted in World War II. Today, as Sebastian played his trumpet, I thought about the ones who never returned. I learned a bit about three of them when I was doing research for my book, Crackerjack Bands and Hometown Boosters: The Story of a Minnesota Music Man.

I had originally included information about the men in Chapter 26 of the book, but it was cut for space, so I'm including the cut material here:

In early January 1945, G. Oliver learned of the deaths of two of his former band members. Both young men had been pallbearers at Islea's funeral. The first, Robert A. Johnson, was a flight officer in the Army Air Corps. He was one of six Army fliers killed on January 8 after two B-26 bombers crashed in routine flight in Texas. He had been a gifted football player and an enthusiastic hunter. He was about to turn 21. 

The second was Henry Strobel, a second lieutenant with the 861st Bomber Squadron, 493rd Bomber. The 22-year-old Strobel died after he was shot down over Belgium on Jan. 10. He was awarded the purple heart and was buried in Normandy, France. 

The day after Strobel's death was announced, on Jan. 31, 1945, the St. Cloud Times-Journal printed an editorial about the losses suffered in the war. It estimated that more than 100 men from St. Cloud had died, and more than 200 from Stearns County, and it predicted that the total would rise significantly by Memorial Day:

"It is hard for one to find words to express what we feel in our hearts. Not only the debt we owe to those who died for us, but to their mothers and fathers, their wives, and other next of kin. These their 'next of kin' have given the most. When we think of what the absence of these 'honored dead' means in the hundreds of homes in Central Minnesota, how selfish and wicked are the complaints we hear about the war because they cannot get all the cigarets and gas they need. Because of food rationing and speed regulations. Let us be fair about these complaints. We do not hear so many as casualty lists are mounting daily by the thousands on the western front and in the Pacific. Complaints are disappearing because in every neighborhood there live the mothers, fathers and wives, who in every waking hour are concerned about the safety of those boys who are in fighting zones and on combat missions in the air and on the seven seas."

One week later, another name was added to the honor roll: Sgt. John Opitz, who played alto horn in G. Oliver's first St. Cloud boys band. He was attached to the paratrooper division and had served in Africa, Italy, southern France, and Belgium. He was killed in action in Germany.

More than 300,000 men and women from Minnesota served in World War II, and nearly 8,000 of them died. Today, I think of them, and their families, and I am sad and grateful.