Welcome to the Journey of an Honor Guard Bugler and CAP Member, Duty, Honor, Country! We sound Taps because freedom in this country isn't free. If you love your freedom, thank a soldier or veteran!

The first part was sort of boring because we just talked. Then we got some excitement going. We had emergency training. I was the victum who was a Civilian in a bombing. So I had a broken leg and was supposed to be knocked out until they found me. Then I was told to scream when they found me and put a splint on my leg. I didn't scream much though. It was very interesting. Then we talked about Summer Training week, which is basic for us. I have to go to walmart tomorrow and get a bunch of stuff, because I don't think our BEx has alot of supply. Here's how it will work. I won't be staying for the whole thing because of honor guard and flight training. I will leave the 11th and come back the 16th. On the 15th, I will report back to the Fargo base for flight training since I haven't had it yet. We'll be flying in gliders. I wanted to complete all of training, but I can't leave my honor guard job this year yet because of lack of buglers. I'll stay the whole time next year though. Family, I will be allowed to bring my cell phone, but can only be used in an emergency. There will be people back here at home on base though if you need to get a hold of me. I am really looking forward to it actually. My friend will be leading me so that I get the whole experience. It will be quite a learning experience. I just love serving our country. It will be awesome to live on base. I will have a computer job when not training, so maybe during freetime I can still post.

Honor guard went well today. It was rather dreadfully hot, because as a bugler I have to wear the service coat. People always tell me I look very nice though, so I guess it's worth it. We all did really well. I'm starting to be able to perform without thinking about it. It was really neat afterwords too, because I got to meet alot of the family. They all told me how good I sounded, and how thankful they were to not have a recording. It was really sad though at one point, because this one lady came up to me and hugged me and told me how good I did. I wanted to hug her back so bad, but there's no hugging in uniform, so I just smiled and said "Thank you so much ma'am." Then I got to have homemade chocolate bars and lemonade. The rest of the guard had to leave. It was another good day.

Today wasn't very successful. We reported for duty at around 4-30 hours. When we got to Jamestown, they gave us a briefing about what our assignments were. It turns out that a few minutes later, they informed us that the air show was canceled. It was extremely disappointing. The weather was really crappy today. We went to breakfast though after at the air show site which was pretty good. When we got through with breakfast, we were told to go back to the other squadron's building to wait for the change of command ceremony to begin. The Jamestown Flight officially became a squadron today. Well, we sat around literally for about three hours until finally we had the ceremony. After that we got on the road and went to one of the major's house to have lunch. It was just a long day. I'm signing off until tomorrow. I have honor guard at three thirty tomorrow, so I'll post after that.

Wow tonight was a blast! First the squadron meeting went awesome! LT Grove is our new Moral Leadership officer, so he spoke to us about leadership and discussions we will have coming up. Then some Airmen had review boards to decide promotions. We had alot get promoted tonight which was wicked awesome! Another cool thing is that I now have a Cadet that is my eyes. She is going to go around with me and help me be as able to see as she can so that I am a regular part of the squadron. She's one of the kids I'm leading in the Cadet Corps. That went awesome by the way! So far the Cadet Corps for ND Bugles Across America has three kids. They are really fast learners! We played the first part of Taps today for our first rehearsal and they have never played before! I am so proud of them!

Well, I am learning so much. I sort of miss pipe band, but I am still going to continue playing. I am to the point now where I can perform for funerals for money, and there's still some bands around here, so I'll see if there's any I like. Another cool thing about being a musician is discovering different styles of your instrument and music you didn't really know much about. I just got recruited by a fife and drum corps yesterday online. I'm still learning what fife and drum corps is all about, so it's pretty interesting. It sounds like a cool thing. They tour and live like the days of the 1800's and have competitions called Musters. There are not any corps really close to me, but one corps in NH where my family lives invited me to come and learn for a few days, so I might do that sometime. I think fifes and drums sound really cool. When they compete, it seems to be more about preserving history than winning. The weird part though, is that girls have to dress like boys, because of the old uniforms. One of the coolest fife and drum corps is called the Old Guard. They are the official fifers and drummers of the army today. I'll have to post a video of them sometime. I'll tell you guys how it goes if I experience an event. I might even learn to be a fifer and really be a well-rounded musician. Soon I'll be able to play almost every type of instrument and people will be hiring me from all around. Here's a cool fife and drum video I found.