Years ago when I went to college, our professor’s taught us about something called a paradigm shift which occurred when an individual experienced a fundamental change in the way he/she thought about something. Looking back I can remember many of these dramatic changes in my life as my husband and I moved to new duty stations. In this story by Steve Ferrera, we see how a veteran bugler witnesses the paradigm shift occurring in the young Marines accompanying him on a burial detail.

Musical Epiphany

My story begins as a duty bugler and Marine Band member on Parris Island.  We called them “dead gigs.” It was extremely irreverent but it always meant a long day with seven grunt riflemen, for the 21 gun salute, on what was supposed to be a day off.

I was now an E-5 Sergeant and had done many of these long bus rides to Georgia. On this trip a group of 18 and 19 year old Privates and PFC’s had the rifle duty with me for the burial. They were very loud and rowdy the whole way to the cemetery and made lots of jokes about the “dead gig.”

When we got there I made my way to a spot, off in the proper distance from the funeral. I noticed the tombstones around me were for names like “Baby Peter 10/5/1957 to 10/7/1957” I was in the infant part of the cemetery. The 21 gun salute rang out and I played taps. Just before the last note, one lone woman’s voice wailed and broke into tears, then, several others followed. The flag was folded and handed to the widow along with the accompanying deadpan speech. We got back on the bus and the young rowdy Marines, of the rifle squad, stared out the windows and did not speak a word the entire three hour bus ride back to Parris Island.

Steve Ferrera received an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps as a Sergeant in 1983.  In 1998 he started Millennium Communications a full service video conference provider.