Memorial Day 2025: A time to remember

I was born and raised in Indiana – and with that comes the “Hoosier” gene instinctively connecting Memorial Day with the Indianapolis 500: The Greatest Spectacle in Racing!

Every year, I look forward to enjoying the many pre-race traditions – the Purdue Band playing “Back Home Again in Indiana”, a thunderous military flyover, and the iconic command of “Drivers, start your engines!”. But one tradition stands apart from the others – a somber and stirring bugle rendition of Taps honoring the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. And although the lingering bugle melody is soon taken over by the sounds of 33 twin-turbocharged 700 horsepower V6 engines, in my mind the tribute to our nation’s heroes should forever rise above the cacophony of celebration – testimony to the true essence of Memorial Day.

Our military uses bugle calls for various special events and times of day. Whether it’s waking up (Reveille), calling for meals (Mess Call), or ending the duty day (Retreat), each has its purpose, and often, sentimental significance.

In the 1918 Irving Berlin tune – “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” you hear the soldier lament – "Someday I'm going to murder the bugler; Someday they're going to find him dead; I'll amputate his reveille and step upon it heavily, and spend the rest of my life in bed." Harsh, but perhaps relatable.

And then there’s Mess Call. Like we wouldn’t have found the mess hall without it!

Retreat, followed by the cannon’s “boom” and the playing of To the Color, is part of the sequence to respectfully lower the “Stars and Stripes” each evening. As a cadet on summer training at Fort Riley, I distinctly remember the company executive officer (who I imagined was just a notch below Army Chief of Staff), springing to the orderly room window at the first notes of retreat. His quick scan targeting any soldiers not appropriately rendering honors. Offenders were quickly, shall we say, retrained.

But few calls are as identifiable by the general public or more likely to illicit tears as Taps. The 24 notes typically last under a minute – a trivial commitment of solemn devotion when compared to the sacrifices it honors.

Today, our Armed Forces plays Taps to signal "lights out" at the end of a military day. More poignantly, it’s heard during patriotic memorial ceremonies and military funerals. When I hear Taps, I personally think of flag draped caskets of my soldiers at the airfield ramp in Kandahar and Bagram, I think of late-night helicopter flights to Dover for dignified transfer ceremonies, and I think of General MacArthur’s “million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray” who rest forever beneath white marble headstones. Memorial Day is their day!

Imagine what the family members and descendants of the fallen would give for their cherished loved one to hear but one more reveille, one more bugle call echoing across the deck of their ship, to have one more chance to salute their nation’s flag as it is lowered and folded with precision.

This Memorial Day, I encourage each of us to pause for a moment of silence, even if it’s done in private. Reflect. Maybe even hum those 24 simple notes. It’s a small gesture—but a meaningful one—to honor our collective promise to Never Forget.

If you're watching the Indy 500 this weekend, be sure not to miss the lone bugler’s reverence to our nation’s heroes. Not many traditions symbolize freedom with such profound grace.

Maj. Gen. (Ret) Rick Stevens

Chief Operating Officer

A former Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rick joined our firm in 2018.