John P. Murphy Jr.

John is of Commander Post 259 and Bugles Across America State Coordinator Authorized Provider AP34 Department of Defense is mainly organizes and trains buglers in all aspects of Honors Military Police and Firemen. John has been doing this for at least five years. John performs in about 20 funeral services a month and coordinates at least another 15 services a month. This may mean that he is playing, or firing, flag folding, arranging pall bearers, chaplains, etc. He also trains Boy and Girl Scouts in all aspects of Bugling and military honors.

With so many service people from WWII, Vietnam and Iraq dying every day along with police and firemen, John tries to make sure that they get the honors that are due to them. In doing so he travels more than 25,000 miles a year as a volunteer. John started a program in Florida to train and qualify individuals on all aspects of honors. He spends many hours outside of the services training himself and many others.

John also has done a number of other volunteer activities with KIA Families and the families of deployed soldiers. He worked on Katrina relief getting four truckloads of goods to Mobile, AL.

Due to the troops being deployed the Department of Defense recognized the shortage of qualified individuals to perform military honors and taps at funerals. John has stepped up to not only help fill that need when he can but to also train others. He was the first civilian bugler to play at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington's National Cemetery and the WWI Dedication as well. The great demand of' WWII veterans dying every day and the nature of what he does is depressing and takes a lot of time and money; and yet he never wavers. He gets involved in every aspect and still has time for his family and American Legion.