(WGHP) — A North Carolina man is honoring fallen soldiers through music.
“Got to do my breathing,” said Ron Stewart, as he opened a small case, pulled out a bugle and exhaled. “Of course, I’ve learned everything the hard way even the breathings.”
Ron was alone in a cemetery in Charlotte about a mile from his home. He’s retired after a 47-year-career selling chemicals. but he wanted more on his resume than that.
In 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, Ron tried to enlist.
“My doctor was against the war, and he wrote one heck of a letter, and they told me I was no longer 1-A. I was 4-F: unworthy to serve,” Ron said.
The story becomes particularly interesting when you discover what kind of doctor that was.
“He was a dermatologist, and he wrote quite the letter, and they said, ‘We can’t take you,’” Ron said. “So I accepted that and went on to school, got married, had kids, worked for 47 years, and now I do this.”
He volunteers for an organization called Bugles Across America.
“About ten years before I was going to retire, I was thinking, ‘What can I do in retirement to give back? And I heard [Bugles Across America founder] Tom Day on Memorial Day talking about Bugles Across America and how they desperately needed live buglers, so I thought, ‘I think I can learn to play that.’ When I retired, I bought a $100 trumpet and spent a year-and-a-half trying to pass the audition.”