MATTHEWS, N.C. — A U.S. Army veteran in Matthews continues to play “Taps” from his front porch each day at sunset. Don Woodside, a former reservist, plays a bugle that has a remarkable history.
The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed an airbase in the Philippines where Don Woodside’s Uncle, Lt. Milton Woodside, was serving as an Army Air Force pilot.
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“My uncle was the first pilot shot down in the Pacific,” Don Woodside said. “He survived the Bataan Death March.”
The Japanese shipped Milton Woodside and other survivors to a P.O.W. camp in Japan where he spent almost four brutal years.
“And so, they put him in the coal mines to go down and dig coal,” the nephew said. “This is the horn that the Japanese used to wake up the prisoners. It was time to wake up in the morning and go down and dig coal. So, when he was rescued, he saw this hanging up on the wall. He grabbed it and brought it back to Charlotte.”
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Milton Woodside gave the bugle to his oldest son, Milton Jr., who later called his cousin Don Woodside.
“He said, ‘I think my father would love for you to have the bugle that was used to wake him up when he was a World War II prisoner. So, he sent it to me and so this is what I play most of the time at sundown.”
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Don Woodside said when he plays “Taps,” he gets emotional thinking about those who served the U.S. and those who never made it back.
“Particularly, on those last two notes,” he said. “At the end of ‘Taps,’ those last two notes.”
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