Retired Minnesota business owner pays tribute to military by playing "Taps"
Gary Marquardt spent Memorial Day on Monday traveling from cemetery to cemetery across the western Twin Cities metro, playing "Taps" for veterans and their families.
The retired Minnesota business owner volunteers through Bugles Across America, a nonprofit organization that provides live buglers for military funerals and memorial services. The group has more than 5,000 volunteers nationwide, including 173 in Minnesota.
Marquardt said he became involved with the organization after attending the funeral of a World War II veteran years ago and hearing a recorded version of "Taps" played from behind a tree.
"When the time came, they folded the flag beautifully and presented it, and a guy stood behind a tree with a recording of 'Taps,'" Marquardt said. "I looked at every face, and they were like, 'Whoa.'"
He later found Bugles Across America online and decided to learn the trumpet despite never having played a horn before. Marquardt said it took about a year of lessons before he was ready to begin what the organization calls "missions."
Since then, he has played hundreds of military funerals and memorial ceremonies across Minnesota, including for veterans ranging from World War II soldiers to Korean War service members whose remains were identified decades later.
Marquardt said playing "Taps" is less about music and more about honoring service.
"It's the country's sacred farewell," he said. "Like I always tell people, it's prayer, it's not music."
On Monday, Marquardt played at multiple cemeteries in the Mound area, where veterans organizations read the names of fallen service members before rifle volleys and the sounding of "Taps."
Nearby, families quietly placed flowers and cleaned gravestones, including Fritz and Fred Wright, a father and son spending part of the holiday caring for a loved one's grave. Marquardt said moments like those remind him Memorial Day is not about politics.
"When a veteran dies, nobody's happy, nobody thinks of anything but, 'Wow, he served,'" Marquardt said.
Marquardt, who was ruled medically ineligible for the Vietnam War draft because of a severe ulcer, said volunteering is his own way of giving back.
"I never had to sleep in a foxhole. I never got shot at," he said. "This is just a way of doing something because I enjoyed everything that the American dream had to offer."
Marquardt has also developed his own traditions over the years. He carries sand from Omaha Beach in his pocket every time he plays "Taps" and performs the song nightly at sunset near Lake Minnetonka. He said the sound often lingers long after the final note.
"There's always some kind of echo," Marquardt said. "It's bouncing off the tombstones or a nearby building."