Posted on 10/06/2005 1:57:07 AM PDT by real saxophonist
MARINE BANDS
Bandsmen Give Performances of Their Lives in Iraq
By Don Bedwell
Serving in a Marine band can be far more perilous than marching to the colors at a friendly base while playing "Semper Fidelis" or "The Marines' Hymn." Living up to the Corps' mantra of "every Marine a rifleman," trombonists, percussionists and clarinet players are trained to fight and to fight well when the mission requires.
As one bandsman in Iraq explained to a reporter for National Public Radio, "The fact that you play tuba doesn't make you any less lethal."
Marine Corps field bands are proving their combat readiness in the Mideast just as they have demonstrated their willingness to fight since the Corps' inception.
Marine music dates back to 1775 Philadelphia, where fifers and drummers "drummed up" the first enlistees for the Continental Marines. Those recruiters wound up on board colonial warships fighting the Royal Navy to help win this nation's independence. Marine bandsmen performed their dual role again in the War of 1812, playing martial music to pump up morale and also fighting to defend Washington, D.C., from British troops.
More recently, Marine bands—excluding the revered "President's Own" band in Washington that fulfills its own vital mission of representing the Corps—have deployed overseas in every major conflict since World War II. Marines from the "Last China Band" endured the siege of Corregidor and three-and-a-half years in Japanese prison camps, where several died. WW II saw other bandsmen and field musics fighting at Guam, Tarawa and Iwo Jima, with some paying the ultimate cost. Others died or were wounded at North Korea's Chosin Reservoir and in Vietnam.
"Bandsmen serving in Iraq are carrying on a proud tradition of Marine musicians who have gone into combat when their nation needed them," said Ray Priest, president of the Marine Corps Musicians Association (MCMA).
Following that tradition, four bands deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) have performed the traditional dual role: playing morale-building music when the situation permits and providing security when it doesn't.
The First Marine Division Band from Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, Calif., fought its way north toward Baghdad with the division's leading elements in March 2003, then returned the next year to serve in the dangerous Al Anbar province. The band anticipates a third deployment early next year. The Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band, based at Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar, Calif., also has been deployed twice to Kuwait and Iraq.
Two North Carolina bands—the 2dMAW Band from MCAS, Cherry Point and 2dMarDiv Band from MCB, Camp Lejeune—have deployed to Iraq, and the 2dMAW Band continues to provide security at Al Asad, Iraq. All the bandsmen have endured, along with regular combat troops, the danger and suffocating heat of a desert war and fanatical insurgency, while exhibiting their customary versatility.
"We can go from clarinets to M16s in a heartbeat," said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mike Edmonson, who taught music in Washington State schools before joining the Marines 18 years ago. He served as officer in charge of the 1stMarDiv Band during its first two deployments to Iraq, doubling as security officer during OIF I and guard officer during OIF II. He recently transferred to Marine Corps Logistics Base, Albany, Ga., to lead the Albany Marine Band.
Recounting the Iraq experience at the MCMA's April 2005 reunion in San Diego, Edmonson praised all the bandsmen serving in the Mideast, protecting other Marine units while dodging mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire. "They are the true heroes who are making it happen, the Marines who deserve your applause."
When the West Coast Composite Marine Band marched in the January 2003 Tournament of Roses Parade, resplendent in dress blues, few cheering spectators realized that two of the participating bands soon would be fighting in the Mideast.
Weeks after parading through Pasadena, the 1stMarDiv and 3dMAW bands were retraining for combat, their musical instruments and dress blues packed to await more peaceful times. They mastered the Noninfantry Machine Gun Course and studied convoy security, patrolling, communications, first aid and other skills before shipping out to Kuwait in February 2003.
Their training would prove critical in the invasion that followed. The 3dMAW Band would remain in Kuwait to defend a staging base, as their 1stMarDiv counterparts prepared to drive into Iraq.
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Gunnery Sergeant Yaphet Jones' watch showed exactly midnight as he led a convoy of humvees across the Iraqi border on March 22, 2003. Jones, a classical trumpet soloist and small-ensemble leader, was functioning as security chief with a quartering party scouting out advance sites for Division Main.
The quartering party, among the northernmost Marine units in the invasion, rolled up Highway 1, passing through the intense heat of oil fields torched by fleeing Iraqi troops. Their advance was soon halted by military police who warned them to hold up until the area ahead was cleared of hostile troops.
Bandsmen were securing the perimeter during the delay when the party discovered it had been halted in the middle of a minefield. "We very carefully but quickly moved our perimeter back to the vehicles," CWO-3 Edmonson recalled, "and hightailed it out of there promptly."
As the division moved northward, the bandsmen suffered along with the regimental units as they were blasted by the biting sandstorm, followed by torrential rain that temporarily paralyzed the advance.
As Saddam's statue came tumbling down in early April, the tired unit rolled into Baghdad and established residence in the former secret-police headquarters, which promised new comfort. The euphoria ended when distraught Iraqis began arriving to plead for information about loved ones last seen walking into the building. Their appeals underscored the evil of a tyrant whose reign the Marines had helped end.
Before long the bandsmen relocated to a small town called Ad Diwaniyah, in south central Iraq. Although Saddam's army was destroyed, terrorists were a growing threat. The band maintained a Quick Reactionary Force for the Division Main, conducting vehicular patrols "beyond the wire" and ready to step in should terrorists breach base security. Staff Sergeant Ken Douglas, a trombonist, led that critical force.
Despite occasional incoming rounds, band members soon received word that they could move their instruments up from Kuwait, welcome news to brass players who had resorted to "buzzing" their mouthpieces to keep in shape. Retrieving the instruments was assigned to the bandmaster, Master Gunnery Sergeant Steve Schweitzer. Schweitzer had been supervising embedded reporters from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, National Public Radio and an Italian newspaper.
The instrument-retrieval chore was a different challenge. Schweitzer had to finagle a seat on an aircraft headed south to Kuwait to locate the instruments and find a C-130 that could fly them to Ad Diwaniyah. Accompanying them were three women and a late-arriving male who had remained at Camp Commando in Kuwait when the rest of the unit headed north. Although Corporal Victoria R. Ortiz, Cpl Heather Salazar, Lance Corporal Victoria E. Fetterly and Cpl Aaron C. Morgan didn't have to face hostile fire, their assignments weren't for the weak of heart. LCpl Fetterly served as a heavy-equipment operator, the others as hospital liaisons.
"The hospital liaisons probably saw more blood and casualties than the men who traveled up Highway 1," as one male bandsman observed.
The liaisons spent countless hours with the injured at the 86th Casualty Support Hospital, which received the wounded direct from combat. After the wounded were given initial treatment in the emergency room, Ortiz remembered, "I would try to ease their pain and take their minds off the injuries by talking to them about their home, their wife, girlfriend—whatever would keep their mind off the pain."
During two months at the hospital, she comforted not only Marines but also Iraqi children and adults who were victims of the war. The injured children left her with some of her most troubling memories.
Despite the suffering they observed, the bandsmen were inspired by Marines who remained motivated even when wounded. "One Marine had been shot four times, each time in a different part of his body," Ortiz said, "yet he was always positive and happy to see me."
Back at Ad Diwaniyah, Ortiz and the other three rejoined the band as members happily reclaimed their instruments. For some, it would be the first time they had played since December 2002. It took several rehearsals to "get their musical chops back" in time to support the Fifth Marine Regiment's change-of-command ceremony.
By May, it was time to return to Camp Commando in Kuwait, where they played a Memorial Day concert. Flying home June 1-3, they had just enough time to unpack instruments for a Stateside change-of-command ceremony at Camp Pendleton on June 7.
In October, the band led the jubilant parade through Oceanside, Calif., as 10,000 returning Marines from I Marine Expeditionary Force were welcomed home by cheering well-wishers and confetti cannons that fired red, white and blue streamers into the California sky. Martial music reverberated along Oceanside's business district.
Even before the 1stMarDiv Band headed home, the 3dMAW Band boarded a transport and flew north from Kuwait to play for a special celebration: the first Marine concert in liberated Iraq. It was only the band's second concert since arriving in the Mideast in February 2003, for the bandsmen had been working 12-hour days in the desert heat, five to six days a week, as a security force.
The historic concert at Al Hillah was staged in the Babylon Coliseum on the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. Brushing off limited rehearsal time, the band delivered an hour-long concert celebrating the U.S. military's overthrow of a feared dictator and the promise of freedom.
Led by CWO-4 Ron Fucuals, the concert featured patriotic and military service songs and even a tune dedicated to Saddam titled "It's All Over Now." Nobody overlooked the significance of the message.
Lieutenant General James T. Conway, commander of I MEF, noted the irony of listening to a Marine band play at one of Saddam's palaces. Memorably, he said, "One of the first songs they played was 'Let Freedom Ring.' "
After an R&R break in the States during early summer 2004, the 3dMAW Band returned to the Mideast in August to provide security at Al Asad, a remote air base in the western Iraq desert. First, though, the band made a stop at Camp Fallujah to play for the I MEF change-of-command ceremony.
"With all the challenges of playing while in a war zone, we did exceptionally well," said CWO-2 Thomas Mangan, named band officer after the retirement of CWO-4 Fucuals. "We're not exactly thrilled to have rockets shot at us, but the experience and positive crowd response were very rewarding."
Their 1stMarDiv Band colleagues had returned to Iraq in February 2004, based with Division Main at Camp Blue Diamond on the outskirts of Ar Ramadi in the heart of the Sunni Triangle.
During the deployment at Camp Blue Diamond, intelligence warned of a likely terrorist attack. Marines stepped up patrols around the perimeter to defuse the enemy's next move. On guard with them were both fellow U.S. Marines and Royal Tongan Marines, South Pacific islanders whose kingdom joined the fight against insurgents.
Alerted to the threat of an attack, bandsmen were ready when it came. Cpl Geoffrey Goerke, a saxophonist, was on duty when insurgents began firing automatic weapons and RPGs at his guard tower. Goerke along with a Marine from Communications Company and a Royal Tongan Marine returned fire with a barrage from their machine guns and M16s.
The attackers slipped away in the darkness, their assault foiled with no casualties. For his performance, Goerke became the first bandsman to win a Combat Action Ribbon in OIF; he would not be the last.
The 1stMarDiv Band headed Stateside in September 2004, the month after the 3dMAW musicians returned home. Replacing them were the 2dMarDiv and 2dMAW bands. The 2dMarDiv Band provided security at Camp Blue Diamond until redeploying to the States in mid-September.
The deployed half of the 2dMAW Band is at Al Asad. Half of the 2dMAW Band initially remained at Cherry Point, under CWO-3 Mike Laird, to cover all the assignments both bands would normally share. Those who remained at Cherry Point have replaced the initial contingent of 2dMAW bandsmen in Iraq. (The Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego and Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms bands also shouldered additional tasks while the other two West Coast bands were forward.)
Bandsmen now in Iraq bring the same commitment as those they succeeded.
"I have been looking forward to this ever since I joined," said Sergeant Kristine A. Streng, a clarinetist for the 2dMAW Band, who was transformed into sergeant of the guard for the tactical command center security platoon (consisting of band personnel) at Al Asad. "I've always known that Marine Corps bands provided security in times of war, so as soon as I found that the 2dMAW was going, I was in my boss' office begging to be part of the deployment."
If the commitment hasn't changed, the training has.
Building on prior bands' experiences in Iraq, their replacements are benefiting from a new approach that allows bandsmen and other noninfantry personnel to train together before they leave for Iraq. To improve teamwork and collaboration, the 50-member 2dMarDiv Band was augmented at Camp Lejeune by Marines from the 2d Combat Engineer Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, Truck Co and Communications Co. Those units trained from November 2004 until they all deployed—100 Marines strong, the number needed to accomplish their security mission—in February.
"To my knowledge, this is the first time a band has been beefed up in the rear and then deployed with attachments that will remain with us throughout the deployment," said CWO-2 Mike Smith, officer in charge of the 2dMarDiv Band.
That cooperation paid off as the security force frequently received indirect mortar and rocket fire and had to fight off occasional direct attacks. Their combat mission has left little time for concerts or even organized rehearsals.
"Several of my Marines will be leaving here with a Combat Action Ribbon," said CWO-2 Smith. "Some are musicians; some aren't. It's hard to tell them apart now. To me they're all TFB [Task Force Blackbeard], basic riflemen with the same mission. They are my family here, regardless of MOS [military occupational specialty]."
Editor's note: Don Bedwell, who served with the 1stMarDiv Band at Camp Pendleton shortly after the Korean War (1954-57), is a professional writer who lives in Cincinnati. A former reporter for The Miami (Fla.) Herald, and The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, he later edited American Airlines' corporate newspaper and wrote a history of the world's largest airline, called "Silverbird." He still plays trumpet and remains active with the Marine Corps Musicians Association.
Great post. You don't join the Marine Corps Band without first becoming a Marine.
As a once upon a time tuba player, I can really appreciate that sentiment... :)
Taking time off from patrolling, personal protection missions and other combat assignments, the 1stMarDiv Band serenaded the departing division commander, then-Major General James N. Mattis, in August 2004, just outside the division combat operations center at Camp Blue Diamond in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. (Photo courtesy of CWO-3 Michael W. Edmonson)
As a former Marine, I can appreciate it, too.
I played tuba in the 5th army band and tuba, french horn, and trumpet in the 74th army band, 1964 to july 1967.
To the best of my knowledge, there were 7 army bands in vietnam doing rouine patrols along with everyone else.
Playing tuba (Sousaphone) was like walking around with a giant bulls eye on your shoulder.
Brings a whole new meaning to "this one time, at band camp..."
A student I went to high school with in Wisconsin was in the White House Marine band. David Wundrow played all the bass instruments, including string bass. We came from a small town and sure were proud of him. I have no idea where he is today. I think he graduated HS in either 1954 or 1955.
"We can go from clarinets to M16s in a heartbeat,"
Hear that, Mick, Dixie Chicks, Bruce, and Bono?
Marine musicians play brave dual role
Viewers who have watched the 1st Marine Division Band march in California's Rose Parade, resplendent in spotless dress blues, would never have recognized the bandsmen outside Ad Diwaniyah. Hunkered down behind .50-caliber machine guns defending the perimeter around division headquarters, sunburned and coated with Iraqi dust, the musicians had become warriors.
Marine musicians have performed a dual role for the Corps for 230 years. That was underscored in October 2003, when the 1st Marine Division Band led a parade through Oceanside, Calif., welcoming home 10,000 troops who had helped defeat Saddam Hussein's forces.
The bandsmen themselves had returned to the states only months earlier after helping protect the convoy fighting its way to Baghdad.
A bandsman's job can be far more hazardous than marching through Pasadena playing "Semper Fidelis."
Following the Corps' mantra "Every Marine a Rifleman," percussionists and trombone players, like cooks and clerks, are trained to fight when necessary, and to fight well.
Marine bandsmen - excluding only the "President's Own" ceremonial band in Washington - have been deployed into combat since the Revolutionary War.
"We can go from clarinets to M-16s in a heartbeat," says Chief Warrant Officer Mike Edmonson, the saxophonist and 18-year Marine veteran who leads the band.
Having served with the band after the Korean War, I had the honor of playing with today's musicians at Camp Pendleton during a reunion in April 2002. Less than a year later, 49 of those men and women, several from Greater Cincinnati, were retraining on M-16s and machine guns and shipping out for Kuwait.
When coalition units drove into Iraq, the musicians shared with infantry the suffocating heat, stress and danger of a desert war. After Baghdad fell, the band again unpacked instruments to support morale with music. But as the insurgency grew, they resumed their combat assignment.
After a second seven-month deployment, they returned from Iraq with a feeling of relief, but also of satisfaction that they had performed well in a dangerous, unfamiliar role - and had lost no one in the process.
"The fact that you play tuba," as one Marine explained to a reporter for National Public Radio, "doesn't make you any less lethal."
Nor, as the band demonstrated once again in Iraq, does it make you less willing to go into harm's way to serve your country.
Don Bedwell, a writer who lives in Madeira, served in the 1st Marine Division Band from 1954 to 1957.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050324/EDIT02/503240416/1021/EDIT
Semper Fi
1965 Dominican Republic... American Embassy under attack by rebels. Holding them off was small detachment of Marines and their trumpet player who manned an M60 machine gun. As we arrived on the scene routing the rebels I heard this trumpet playing something that sounded familar. What the hell is that trumpet playing I asked LT. "Charge Dummy!" replied LT. :-)
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thanks for headsup! TubaGuy Ping.. you might enjoy this.
I am a marching band groupie. follow Hudson HS each season. 300+ strong & a swing marching band that has won top honors in national competition. SOOOOO much difft than when I was in HS .
Loved the military bands in the Inaugural parade
We-(highschool) had the coolest uniforms....burgandy wool, military fitted top, & trousers...and a full size burgandy cape that flashed gold taffeta when we spun around.....LOL...it was truly cool.---We thought we were the cat's meow :)))
Our little suburbia Tennessee highschool played at the Cotton Bowl one year....(we weren't halftime, just pregame)
A movie I really recommend is....Drumline!....super movie!
great movie.. saw it twice.
remember section.. flight of bumblebee? har!
Ping for Military Band players...
Just so you see this. I was in during the first Gulf War; Didn't have to go over there.
Good evening and the very best to you and yours.
Semper Fi
Tommie
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