The following letter was written to give a brief description of how the 100 Nights of Remembrance came to be. It was published in the program book for the 9-11-07 closing ceremony.
Special thanks to Noel Taylor & The Muchachos Drum & Bugle Corps
The plan to first honor New Hampshire's and the country's fallen veterans with a fitting ceremony at the
Boscawen cemetery last year was the idea of Noel Taylor. Taylor an Army Veteran of the Vietnam
Conflict and member of The Muchachos Drum & Bugle Corps, had often sounded TAPS at the funerals of
fellow veterans, in his determination to provide a live, fitting and final tribute to his comrades, in place of
an all too frequent occurrence, where a tape recording of the solemn horn notes was often used, due to
the lack of volunteer buglers.
When 7 of Taylor's fellow members of the Muchachos, volunteered to travel to upstate New York last
summer, to participate in the Echo TAPS program, a national event sponsored by Bugles Across America,
it touched a nerve with Taylor. The purpose of Echo TAPS was to raise awareness of the need for
volunteer buglers nationwide to sound TAPS at veterans funerals, where too many funeral directors were
forced to resort to the tape recording as a final tribute. The Echo TAPS event spanned the gap between
the national veterans cemeteries in Elmira and Bath New York, with over 800 volunteer musicians, who
played TAPS not only with trumpets and brass bugles but some even played their own reed or woodwind
instruments.
That event prompted Taylor to consider some type of a public ceremony for the hallowed grounds of the
New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery. His initial attempt was last year's “21 Horn Salute” with TAPS
sounded by members of the Muchachos. With the success of last year's event, Taylor expanded his
plans this year with “100 Nights of Remembrance” beginning on Memorial Day weekend and culminating
tonight on the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on this country. With the participation of additional
volunteer groups this summer, our veterans lying in rest on these grounds were saluted nightly with at
least 1 bugler sounding TAPS at dusk.
We thank all of you, buglers, musicians, family members and fellow Americans for your participation in
our program and ask that you always remember the sacrifice and service of our veterans, not only here
in New Hamsphire but for those also at rest across the country and on foreign shores.