A call out to all Bag Pipers

[kiltboytoo]

The Scottish-American Military Society has been approached, on a national level, to act as a centralized point of contact to identify bagpipers willing to play at soldier's and veteran's funerals. The need is immediate and urgent. We are in the process of forming a committee to establish and maintain a database of volunteer pipers. However, since the need is critical I, and a few other SMS members, are beginning to reach out to our bagpiping resources to jump start the effort.

Would you put out the call for us to your band mates and piping friends? If we can build a large enough database the demands on any single piper would not be overwhelming.

Soldiers may be interred in either a national veterans cemetery, like Tahoma, or in the soldier's hometown, family cemetery. The exact location of each funeral won't be known until the piper, the committee, or however it ends up being organized, is contacted by a Casualty Assistance Officer, Secretary for the General Staff, Public Relations Officer, other official, or the family. At this point, I'm not even sure if the pipers can expect their transportation costs to be reimbursed.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Tim

Timothy S. Cooke, USAR (ret)
National Commander
Scottish-American Military Society
253-350-0038

[ohiopiper]

Odd, I didn't even know there WAS a Scottish-American Military Society.

Anyway, due to work schedules and lack of a kilt until this past fall, I've not been taking gigs. That's been changing the last two months.

Will we (the pipers) be able to put boundaries on how far we will travel and what days of the week we are available?

[Jack Daw]

Approached by whom or what (on a 'national level')?

I'm all in favor of getting such connections as I would be proud to pipe at a military funeral; although, I've never had difficulty getting calls from funeral homes after leaving my business card. I don't make a living as a piper, but a piper's kit is not cheap and I rankle at any attempt to qualify my hiring by not promising to cover my travel expenses. I only allow friends to take such advantage.