ARLINGTON, Va. — During wreath laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Master Sgt. Matthew Byrne marches out to the Tomb, brings his bugle to his lips and slowly sounds out the 24 notes of the bugle call, “taps.” When finished, he tucks the bugle under his arm, salutes and marches away.

As one of the Army Band’s trumpeters, Byrne plays the bugle at events around the cemetery and Military District of Washington events in the nation’s capital and throughout the country. He has sounded taps at funeral services for dignitaries such as Gen. Colin Powell and Sen. Bob Dole, as well as ceremonial wreath layings by various world leaders.

Byrne, from Long Island, New York, began playing the trumpet in elementary school after hearing the theme to the movie “Rocky,” called “Gonna Fly Now.” After graduating from Ithaca College, he spent six years teaching music at elementary and middle schools in New York and Connecticut before returning to the University of Louisville to pursue a master’s degree in trumpeter performance.

In 2004, at the age of 29, Byrne learned of an opening for a ceremonial trumpeter in the Army Band, known as “Pershing’s Own.” He auditioned for the job and got it. After completing basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he joined the band at Fort Myer, Virginia.

Even though Byrne has sounded, “taps,” thousands of times, he still strives to meet the Army Band’s high standards. “There are times that a note got chipped or “taps” was not up to my standards,” he said. “In Pershing’s Own, it’s done right.” Having sounded “taps” at funerals around the country, he knows that ANC is different. “Few places match the level of professionalism at Arlington,” he explained. “The amount of dedication to detail here is something special.”

Byrne has played “taps” in temperatures as low as 8 degrees and as high as 104 degrees, in all kinds of weather. The hottest was a change of command ceremony at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he had to stand on an unshaded field. “It was like standing in a convection oven that was blowing hot air through my wool uniform and high collar,” he said. The pain was most intense on his feet. “Those black shoes make it feel like your feet are cooking.”

Byrne tries to ignore the people around him while he plays, but he has noticed people’s reactions when he’s finished. “I’ve caught tough-looking biker dudes breaking down at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,” he said. “It’s a moving experience for a lot of people, especially if it’s their first time at the cemetery.”

Byrne tries not to let cameras or crowds distract him. Instead, he focuses the on the person being honored. Some of the hardest funeral services, he explains, are the ones with low attendance. “That struck me,” he said recalling a funeral attended by only a chaplain and an Arlington Lady. “It was difficult sounding ‘taps’ because it was too personal.”

The absolute hardest funeral services for Byrne, of course, are those for his fellow soldiers. “Those hit closer to home,” he explained, because of the emotional connections he experiences while sounding “taps.” “It’s odd to sit next to a person at work one day and they’re not there the next.”

In early 2021, the Army Band made Byrne its official Special Bugler. His first assignment was President Joseph Biden’s inaugural wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In attendance were the Bush, Obama and Clinton families. For Byrne, it was a true trial by fire. “There were a whole handful of people that I didn’t look at,” he remembered. When it was over, he received hundreds of texts and emails from worldwide admirers. “I received nice comments from the ‘who’s who’ of the trumpet world,” he said. “It was mind-numbing how many people viewed my performance.”

Byrne also enjoyed sounding “taps” when South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol joined Biden in laying a wreath at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on April 25, 2023. The event was private, with no media or audience. Only the presidents and their spouses attended. “Opportunities like that are special and unique,” he said. “I have a front seat to history as it happens.”

Byrne loves what he does. “I can’t think of any other career that could be so emotionally and professionally satisfying,” he said. He enjoys his job so much that his car’s license plates read “24 Notes.” “It’s such a big part of what I do,” he explained. “Those who know, know.”

By Kevin M. Hymel, ANC Historian

Rivulets of sweat dripped down the Soldiers’ flushed faces as they marched across the arid land mid-summer. As temperatures rise to over 100°F, the humid air becomes oppressive and heat-related illnesses become an increasingly real threat to Warfighters. Extreme temperatures and intensifying weather, influenced by a warming climate, continue to get worse or at best sustained, becoming a perfect recipe for noncombat-related injuries.

Climate change is not a new phenomenon but is one that continues to not only affect the ecosystem–plants, animals and resources–but also Army operations. Like a pendulum, temperatures oscillate between hot and cold, which is normal, but can be amplified to more extreme levels.

“It is hard to ignore climate change when it has real world effects, as it directly impedes how we conduct military operations or training,” said Dr. Adam Potter, Research Physiologist in the Thermal & Mountain Medicine Division (TMMD) at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM). “It poses increasing risks to the health of Service Members and has the potential to jeopardize our missions.”

Heat-related illnesses and injuries can take a Warfighter out of operations during both training and in real-world military activities, such as combat, security operations and humanitarian missions. With increasing environmental temperatures, Warfighters might find themselves facing exertional heat illness that can range from heat exhaustion to life-threatening heat stroke. This risk increases during strenuous operations such as foot marches, running activities or when carrying heavy loads.

“When carrying out military-specific tasks, such as the 2-mile run or 12-mile foot march, often carrying heavy packs, the chances for an individual to reach a dangerous level of body core temperature, or hyperthermia, increases greatly in higher ambient temperatures, especially if clothing or high humidity prevent the evaporation of sweat,” said Dr. Nisha Charkoudian, Chief of TMMD. “In a practical sense, standard military training becomes progressively more thermally stressful compared with just a few decades ago.”

To predict the potential impacts from environmental exposures, such as increased temperature or humidity, the Army has developed sophisticated biophysical mathematical models. “Typically, we need to consider a minimum of four factors in our modeling, including the environment, the human – fitness, body size, etc. – their activity level and the clothing they are wearing,” Potter says. “We can put quantifiable numbers to each of these elements and mathematically describe or predict likely changes to occur in a given scenario to a human and their physiological and/or thermal responses.”

These models enable Potter and other researchers to calculate the differences in exposure risks between individuals based on their size, acclimation status and health status. If there are shifts in the environment, these models allow for data-informed comparisons to suggest how sudden changes can impact the individuals or groups. The relative risk of heat stress of a Service Member could be assessed based on the combination of conditions and their specific clothing. For example, a full combat uniform could be removed, or items worn could be adjusted to decrease the thermal burden on the individual.

Some environmental conditions the model accounts for include elements such as solar radiation, wind velocity, humidity and temperature. These factors can drastically change and may force Soldiers to adjust their training. For example, conditions could be shifted to nighttime when there is little to no solar radiation compared to during the day.

“With an increase in a temperature alone, there becomes an increased risk to individuals that may shorten the amount of time they may safely work in a given condition. While individual differences can also be modeled; where, for example, in some conditions, a person of a smaller size will be better off in one condition than another and vice versa. The models provide us with powerful tools, as they allow us to assess the complex interactions of all these different variables,” Potter said.

The military has procedures for training, tactics and operations, but the climate can be an additional adversary or ally depending on the Army’s approach. Charkoudian and Potter suggest that the military implement creative or “outside the box” methods to adapting to a changing climate.

“One approach may be to investigate potential impacts of a reversal of sleep-wake cycles during basic training during the hot months of the year, to minimize the usual increase in heat-related injuries, and to enhance the capacity for physical training and combat performance,” Charkoudian said. “Switching day and night could decrease both heat-related illness/injury and lost training days over the course of the basic training program. However, this approach would have multiple ramifications regarding Soldier health and logistics of training, so the feasibility remains to be determined.”

“It can be difficult to implement a systemic shift, but it could be necessary if the risks of heat injuries are so high that they result in heat casualties,” Potter said. “It could even be a tactical advantage to doing operations at night.”

This kind of shift in structure could provide us with both physiological and tactical advantages but may result in unconventional alterations.

“We recognize that there would be multiple effects of such a modification and data collection would be necessary to evaluate the effects of these types of changes, such as inverted sleep-wake schedule on physical and mental health and on physiological and cognitive performance,” Charkoudian said.
Solutions for a warming climate will not be found overnight, but in the meantime, the Army is finding revolutionary ways to adapt to an unpredictable and modifiable environment.

“Climate change is a threat, but we can also use it to our advantage by changing traditional military operations for new recruits and mitigating health threats that reduce military readiness,” Potter said.

USARIEM is a subordinate command of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command under the Army Futures Command. USARIEM is internationally recognized as the DOD’s premier laboratory for Warfighter health and performance research and focuses on environmental medicine, physiology, physical and cognitive performance, and nutrition research. Located at the Natick Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts, USARIEM’s mission is to optimize Warfighter health and performance through biomedical research.

By Maddi Langweil, USARIEM Public Affairs

WARREN, Mich. — Soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Cavazos, Texas, helped the Army better understand how Armored Brigade Combat Teams may fight in the future, thanks to a Soldier touchpoint held in September at the Detroit Arsenal in Michigan.

The Soldiers from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment supported a virtual experiment with the XM30 combat vehicle program, providing feedback on how Soldiers might best utilize the vehicle in a combat scenario.

“The input we gain from our Soldiers in these touchpoints is invaluable to the vehicle development process,” said Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Norman, director of the Next Generation Combat Vehicles Cross-Functional Team, which is based at the Detroit Arsenal.

“These touchpoints are part of the iterative process between our Army engineers and our industry partners to ensure we deliver the vehicle the Army needs for 2030 and beyond.”

During the experiment, Soldiers from the platoon worked in a vehicle simulator, with Soldiers serving as the crew of the simulated XM30 and infantry dismounts who would be transported in the rear of the vehicle.

The XM30 is now under development and will replace the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle in the Army’s Armored Brigade Combat Teams in the future. The first XM30s will be delivered to the first unit equipped in fiscal year 2029. XM30 will have a crew of two Soldiers and will carry infantry Soldiers in the rear of the vehicle.

Virtual experimentation is helping the Army to determine what functions or tasks a member of the dismount team could perform to support the crew.

“We’re running through a variety of simulations and scenarios to assess the benefits of different configurations,” explained the first lieutenant who led the group of Soldiers participating in the virtual experiment. “Most of these Soldiers have live experience in Bradleys, they understand the mission sets and they know what they would like to see in the XM30.”

During the experiment, after the Soldiers participated in a mission scenario, engineers would immediately conduct an after-action interview, gathering input from the Soldiers on what worked and what didn’t. Other engineers studied a wide range of hard data, determining in which crew scenario the Soldiers were best able to meet mission goals.

“The engineers here in Detroit are really listening to what we have to say,” said a participating staff sergeant. “I think it is pretty exciting to see how the Army is taking what we’ve seen in the field and putting that together with this new technology to create a better system.”

Another staff sergeant who participated in the virtual experiment said that even though the XM30 is still in development — currently two companies are under contract by the Army to build and deliver physical prototypes by 2026 — “there are some things in this simulated version that I wish we had now, that will simplify tasks for the crew.”

The staff sergeant said all the Soldiers who participated in the touchpoint understood the important role they were playing.

“We’re making the connection between the user world and the influencer world. That’s pretty cool,” he said.

Norman said a number of additional Soldier touchpoints are scheduled throughout the XM30 development process.

By Dan Heaton, Next Generation Combat Vehicles Cross-Functional Team