Army Bugler Does His Best to Play On During Pandemic

When Fourth of July arrives in Washington, fireworks bursting in the air aren't the only sounds that traditionally enliven the capital.

The U.S. Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps normally sounds out tunes such as “Yankee Doodle” at a National Archives ceremony, then steps off into the National Independence Day Parade. The buglers, fifers and drummers are crowd-pleasers, not least for their splashy uniforms. Their red wool jackets, beige waistcoats and trousers, black tri-corner hats and gray wigs hark back to the Revolutionary War.

But America's 244th birthday isn't occurring during a normal time.

Fireworks will still explode over D.C., but the Fife and Drums Corps' 70 soldier-musicians will be idle. This year the Archives will host a virtual celebration, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. E.T. And the parade? Like many spectacles from sea to shining sea, it's been canceled.

Sgt. 1st Class John Parks, head drum major, leads the corps during a training session.

Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Lynch/Courtesy Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

Camaraderie strikes the right key

"The best part of the job is the camaraderie and just the experience of working together as a team,” says Master Sgt. Patrick Richard, a 51-year-old bugler who has been in the band for 17 years. While members work mostly from home, rehearsing music and marches, he misses his colleagues.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Richard finished a master's degree in trumpet performance at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. At age 31, he joined the Army. Richard underwent basic training at Fort Sill, in Oklahoma, where he was so much older than the teenage enlistees that a drill sergeant nicknamed him Grandpa.

Not a grandfather yet, he is married to a French horn player in the U.S. Marine Band known as The President's Own. He and Master Sgt. Greta Richard, 46, have two children, 15 and 13. They live in suburban Virginia, in a home they share with her parents, who are in their mid-70s.