Another veteran of the Armed Forces was laid to rest Thursday. Jim Manzo was there.
Hundreds of people will gather at Veterans Plaza Saturday to pay their respects to our nation’s veterans on Veterans Day. Jim Manzo will be there.
At noon every Friday at Compadres Hill Country Cocina, all talk and movement ceases for 24 seconds. Jim Manzo is there.
Manzo is Boerne’s own trumpet and bugle player, known for playing Taps at hundreds of military-related events – from funerals, to Veterans Day gatherings and official military events.
In February, he played not only Taps but the National Anthem at the San Antonio Area Regents’ Council’s Flag Retirement Ceremony.
“When you play Taps, you are the last goodbye, and the last thank you,” Manzo said of his playing for veterans’ funerals. “I get called often. And when they do, I will be there.”
Jim Manzo plays Taps during a recent ceremony. Courtesy photo
Manzo has played for hundreds of funerals throughout the San Antonio and Boerne area. His willingness to play has taken him to New Braunfels, Austin, and San Antonio, even in places like Pipes Creek. Many of the ceremonies he plays are at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.
“I pray before I play, make sure to breathe properly, and just focus everything else out,” he said.
At most military funerals, Taps is preceded by a gun-volley salute, and a call for “Present Arms.”
“Right after the volley,” Manzo said, “is the ‘Present Arms.’ If there’s going to be crying, it’s going to be right then. And crying, that can really throw you off.”
From the time he picked up his first instrument in the sixth grade back in New Jersey, Manzo was destined to play the trumpet.
“I wanted to play the saxophone, but my parents could not afford one,” he said. One of his father’s best friends played trumpet for ABC Television “and that’s how I got my first one. I got it from him,” he recalled.
Manzo was in U.S. Army from 1966-1969 and went into the Reserves in 1972. He eventually moved to the Fair Oaks Ranch area in 1999.
During Vietnam, Manzo auditioned for the West Point Band. For the first year there, he said he was in a group called The Hellcats. “The band wakes them up with reveille, play for breakfast formation, you do the colors at the end of the day, and at 10 p.m., play Taps,” he said.
Then, year two saw him move into the West Point Band itself. “At the time it was almost impossible to get I to the band,” he said.
Manzo said he finds it difficult to turn down a request to play, something he only does when a new request conflicts with a previous commitment.
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