‘I try not to cry’: Mount Prospect man among buglers in nationwide Memorial Day ceremony

Each Memorial Day, Taps for Veterans hosts an annual remembrance for fallen service members called Taps Across America. It is a time when musicians play “Taps” at 3 p.m. wherever they happen to be on Memorial Day.

Since 2020, 83-year-old Mount Prospect resident Ron Vlcek has raised a bugle to his lips and sounded the mournful notes.

Vlcek doesn’t himself play the bugle, although he has tried to learn — he uses an electronic device with a button that, when pushed, plays the tune.

While he is playing, it is difficult for the Air Force veteran, who served from 1962 to 1966, to contain his emotions.

“I try not to cry,” he said.

Taps Across America was started in 2020 by retired Air Force bugler Jari Villanueva, co-founder of Taps for Veterans, as a way of bringing Americans together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inaugural tribute drew 10,000 musicians.

“I saw an article on it,” Vlcek said. “We used to have a bugler, who passed away. And then they decided that I was going to be the bugler. I don’t know how to play the bugle or anything else. So they gave me this electronic bugle. All you got to do is push the button and it plays.”

He said he has tried to learn how to play.

“But I’m 83 years old,” he said. “I don’t have that kind of breath anymore.”

Vlcek, the adjutant for American Legion Post 255 in Mount Prospect, joined the Air Force after graduating from Morton East High School.

“I figured my number was going to be coming up,” he said. “I was interested in aircraft, all the time, ever since I was a little kid.”

He became an aircraft mechanic specializing in the repair of hydraulic and pneumatic systems — anything from landing gear to cargo doors to flight controls.

Following his service, he worked for more than 37 years with United Airlines, where he became a zone controller at O’Hare, coordinating with maintenance, customer service and food service, among other operations, before retiring. He and his wife of 54 years, Jan, moved to Mount Prospect in 1995.

On Monday, he will play at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect.

He said he is still in contact with one friend from the service who lives with his wife in Minneapolis.

“We exchange Christmas cards and letters,” he said. “We’re not the young ones that do the texting all the time.”