Brief ceremony at Fort Bayard National Cemetery commemorates the end of World War II

By Mary Alice Murphy

A less than two-minute ceremony this morning at Fort Bayard National Cemetery recognized the end of World War II with a playing of taps by SMSgt. Larry Hill (retired) of Las Cruces and a wreath laying by Fort Bayard National Cemetery Program Support Assistant Joseph Trujillo.

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Hill said he spent 24 years with the Air Force Academy band in Colorado Springs. "I am a member of Bugles Across America. Our mission is to provide buglers for veterans' funerals. We don't have enough active duty or national guard buglers, so this is a nationwide network of buglers to provide services. Today's ceremony is sponsored by the organization across the country."

He is one of two buglers in the organization in Las Cruces.

"My band career was interesting," he continued. "I went into the Air Force after I got my bachelor's degree at University of New Mexico. I led an 11-person group that deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the Horn of Africa to provide for troop morale. I went with a Marine group to Djibouti. The Marines were drilling wells way out in the bush. It was funny because all the kids knew all the pop songs. After I retired, I was a civilian in human resources at Vandenburg Air Force Base. I got to cover the first SpaceX launch on the west coast."