Nine-Year-Old Lower Merion Bugler Impresses At Military Funerals

Editor’s note: previously published May 21, 2015

By JAMES BOYLE

A military service at Valley Forge Park in May included the special treat of a nine-year-old bugler performing military songs for the ceremony.

Aidan Peterson, a third grader at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, is the youngest member of Bugles Across America, a non-profit organization that consists of more than 5,500 bugler volunteers located in all 50 states and a growing number overseas.

During the month of May, Aidan sounded Taps at a funeral for a member of the Coast Guard.

According to a release from Harcum College, he received a note from a member of the Guard who stood with him while he played, saying, “It was an honor to have Aidan render ’TAPS’ in a respectful call without any hesitation or missing notes. Having attended many military funerals and listening to many buglers, I am of the opinion that Aidan professionally performed his calling in such a way that we would hold him in our highest esteem and rank him among the top military buglers.”

On Armed Forces Day last weekend, Aidan was the lead-off bugler during Echo Taps at a program at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, as well as being part of a trumpet choir. He will also sound Taps, along with all the military branch songs, at a hospice in Broomall during a Memorial Day observance.

Photo courtesy Harcum College