The Bugle Call

The elderly man stopped at the door of the classroom. He placed the cane on his shoulder and marched into the room singing cadence followed by a wartime song. 

The infantry, the infantry with dirt behind their ears
Can whip their weight in wildcats and drink their weight in beers.
The cavalry, the artillery, and the corps of engineers
Can never whoop the infantry in a hundred thousand years.

As he stopped in front of the room, he turned to face the students. “Before I was born,” were his first words. Isn’t that where all our stories begin? As with most of his stories, they took him back to the mountains of Montana. Well they should have because he was “the man of the mountains.” “Before he was born,” a family in Melville bought old Cavalry horses for the kids to ride. One day the kids were out riding when some soldiers rode by on their mounts. One of the riders sounded his bugle. The Cavalry horses the kids were riding answered the call. The horses ran off to join the others. Horses were soldiers too, you know. They went quite a distance before they turned for home. As the “man of the mountains” told his story, he said, “old soldiers answered the call of the bugle and I answered the call.”

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The bugle sounded and a young man went into battle in World War II. He recalled the stories of war to the students. Though the ninety-year-old man was small of stature, his presence demanded attention and respect. All eyes were on him. He stretched to his full frame of just over five feet yet he was larger than life. His World War II army jacket was held closed by the bottom button. Somehow, his presence and the recounting of his experiences in the European theater brought history to life. The stories and places the students had read about became real.

Though the old soldier is no longer with us, his story continues to be told and his memories still live on. Always a soldier, when the final bugle sounded, the old soldier answered the call.