Corps calls Echo Taps

Students gathered with the Corp of Cadets for an Echo Taps ceremony Monday night to honor Amy Pacheco and Miguel Hernandez, both of whom were killed in a car crash Sunday leaving a JROTC drill meet in Houston.

Both were freshman cadets and members of Company B-1.

“[Pacheco] was always smiling and was always willing to help others,” said Daisy Echeverria, junior psychology major. “She had such a positive attitude and was so excited to be here.”

Echo Taps is a long-standing A&M tradition similar to Silver Taps, though it is less known to those not in the Corps. Echo Taps is held on the Quad the night following the death of a cadet. The entire Corps dresses in “midnights” on the day of Echo Taps to honor its fallen comrade. One bugler plays a rendition of Silver Taps at the end of the Quad and a second bugler at the opposite end of the Quad echoes it shortly thereafter. Immediately following the ceremony, the cadets return to their dorms in silence.

“[Hernandez] was one of the first friends I had here at A&M,” said Oswaldo Tejada, freshman forensics major said. “I never saw him not smiling. He had a way of unifying people. Last semester our focus group wasn’t getting along because we were all from different backgrounds, but he brought us together.”

Sunday morning, a Mustang traveling the wrong way down Highway 290 collided with Pacheco’s vehicle. Another freshman cadet and passenger in the car, Francisco Campos, is in critical condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The driver of the other vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene and alcohol was believed to be involved, Harris County Sherriff’s Department officials said.

Pacheco and Hernandez will be honored at Silver Taps next month.