Vineland bugler to honor veterans with Taps at Siloam Cemetery

Warren Crescenzo stood at Siloam Cemetery at 3 p.m. Monday and used a bugle to honor the veterans buried there, carrying a Vineland Memorial Day tradition into its seventh year and tying it directly to the graves of fallen service members.

The performance has grown from a private gesture into a public observance with deeper local weight. Crescenzo, a familiar figure in Vineland through his work in public schools, local radio and as vice-president and marketing director of the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society, began playing Taps in his backyard after the national Taps Across America effort launched in 2020 during the pandemic. He later moved the tribute to Siloam Cemetery, saying the veteran’s section made the moment feel more meaningful and visible.

That shift mattered. Siloam Cemetery gave the ceremony a setting where remembrance was not abstract. It was anchored beside the graves of men and women who served, and this year’s program was built to make that connection plain. The Greater Vineland Chamber of Commerce said the observance would honor fallen service members and include learning about some of the soldiers buried there.

For the first time, members of the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society were expected to join Crescenzo with a short program that included the Star-Spangled Banner, a reading of the Declaration of Independence and related activities. The addition linked military remembrance with the city’s historical identity, and it placed one of Cumberland County’s most recognizable civic organizations at the center of the observance.

The local ceremony also echoed a larger national rhythm. Taps Across America was founded in 2020 by retired Air Force bugler Jari Villanueva as a way to bring Americans together when Memorial Day gatherings were disrupted by the COVID pandemic. The idea spread through porch performances, backyards, parks and graveside tributes, and it turned a solitary trumpet call into a shared act of mourning.

Memorial Day itself carries that same structure in federal law. Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time, a one-minute pause meant to honor those who died in military service. In Vineland, Crescenzo’s bugle call gave that national instruction a local face, one that was heard where the memory already lives: among the markers at Siloam Cemetery.