POST FALLS — Darkness was settling in when a lone vehicle turned into Evergreen Cemetery Tuesday night.

A man stepped out carrying a bugle and without words, walked to the veterans memorial.

He didn’t want to give his name. And he didn’t want to be the center of attention in a newspaper article. He really didn’t want his picture taken, either, but relented.

What he wanted was for the focus to be on the sacrifice of the 13 U.S. service members killed Aug. 26 by a suicide bomber at the Kabul airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

That’s why he was there, alone. No fanfare. No applause. No audience.

“It’s just my way to honor their memory and the service that they gave to our country,” he said.

He was part of a coordinated nationwide tribute carried out by Bugles Across America at 7 p.m. in different time zones. It was founded in 2000 by Tom Day when Congress passed legislation stating that all veterans at burial have a right to at least two uniformed military people to fold the flag and play taps on a CD player.

Bugles Across America took things a step further. 

“In recognition of the service these veterans have provided to their country, we felt that they each deserve a live rendition of taps by a real bugler,” the website says.

The soft-spoken Post Falls man who arrived at Evergreen Cemetery Tuesday night was proud to be there. He wanted to be sure veterans, those who died for their country, received the respect they deserved.

“I’ve had a soft heart for veterans since I was about 12 years old,” he said.

Precisely at 7, with a fall wind blowing, he began to play. The sound of taps emerged from the horn he held to his lips. It cried into the growing darkness and towering trees.

In less than a minute, he was done.

If anyone heard it, he didn’t know.

It was a somber occasion, he said, as the nation was losing people it shouldn’t have lost.

It was for those people he played.

“I think readers around here will enjoy knowing someone at least took a few minutes to think about it and what it meant,” he said.

A minute later, without further explanation, he drove away.