Navy bugler scared of blowing it

By CPL Damien Shovell

CPO Andrew Stapleton, who was given the honour of playing the bugle at the Anzac Day dawn service in Baghdad.

On accepting the task of flying to Iraq to be the Anzac Day bugler, CPO Andrew Stapleton, RAN Band Sydney, had no idea it would mark the highlight of his career.

As he stood ready at dawn on Anzac morning for the ceremony at the Air Traffic Control detachment at Baghdad International Airport, with a host of VIPs including Prime Minister John Howard and CDF General Peter Cosgrove, more than 100 ADF personnel and a large media contingent, nerves almost got the better of him.

“I thought, I’ve just got to do this and I managed to calm myself down,” he said.

“I started playing the bugle when I was about eight years old and I was doing bugle calls for Anzac Day in my home town of Parkes from about the age of 10 onwards, and I was thinking well, from that point in time I’ve been leading up to this, to do something like this on active service.

“I was contemplating just prior to the service, that probably all that time ago, everything has led to this which is the climax of my career.”

CPO Stapleton and the Catafalque Party were only told of the true identity of the VIPs on the eve of Anzac Day.

“They probably told us so that we wouldn’t get distracted and be able to operate properly on the day,” he said.

“I was actually very nervous, and I was just thinking about all these things before the service started and I knew I was nervous and thought, ‘look, if I don’t get this under control quickly, I’m not going to pull it off,’ and I knew how important it was.

“So I guess, maybe with a bit of help I calmed down enough.

I knew it just had to be right, and I didn’t want to miss any notes.” CPO Stapleton has played at other major Anzac ceremonies including in Borneo for the 50- year anniversary of World War II and toured Iraq last December as part of the Tour de Force.

“But I would have to say that this would have to be the best by far,” he said.

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