It's called "dance band" for a reason...

Flute 1 and Flute 2

Angelina Dowell, of the Fleet Forces Band, and the NMA's George Dietzler have a lot in common. They're both flute players, both Navy musicians.

Their enlistment periods don't quite match up, though; Angelina joined the Navy in 2009, whereas George signed up a bit earlier--1947, to be exact.

O! Say, can you see...

Navy Musicians honor our flag and country as a part of their regular duties. Although many of us are no longer in uniform, we continue to honor flag and country when the anthem is played. The Defense Authorization Act of 2009 specifically allows and encourages veterans to render the hand salute during the playing of the National Anthem.

For us, saluting during the National Anthem is not a duty; it's a privilege.

CDR Ralph Ingraham

My early-1980s shipmate from Navy Band Newport is now the Commanding Officer of the U.S. Navy School of Music. I was glad that CDR Ralph Ingraham found the time to join us; he's a busy guy, just a few weeks shy of retiring.

Boy, things change. Back in Newport, the two words you wouldn't have used to describe MU2 Ralph Ingraham were "shy" and "retiring."

Blackout

Now comes the post-reunion Navy Lyres blackout period.

I'm in my room at the Holiday Inn, suitcase packed with NMA shirts, computer full of images of a wonderful week and an itinerary sheet covered with flight departure times, layover times, arrival times. This is everyone's least favorite part of an NMA reunion: the end.

So this is my travel day. I'll arrive home tonight, brief my wife on the week's events and crash. I have much more to share with you after this stellar--there's that word again--week. I'll pass these things along over the coming week.

But now it's time for me to shut down. The rains that threatened our reunion, yet never came, just arrived, so travel schedule may become iffy..

Later, my friends.

Did we sound this good?

U.S. Fleet Forces Ceremonial Band, 

LT C.S. White, Conductor,

 Navy Musicians Association Reunion, 

June 20, 2013.

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It's the white of their whites that first strikes you. That's only natural; they haven't played a tune yet. They're milling about, warming up, tossing tuning notes around. But geez, those whites are white. You think about your time as a Navy musician and wonder: did I look that good? It doesn't seem possible.

After a minute or two, the conductor's commands ring with distant familiarity: "Band, stand by." "Band, attention." The sailors react with a precision that, again, causes you to wonder: was my band this sharp?

Members of the U.S. Fleet Forces Band mill about smartly.

Following a series of hand signals from the conductor, the musicians put horns to lips and wait for the downbeat. They look wonderful, yes, but it's just a ceremonial band--a gun tub, shitty-ditty, bag band. You played a million gigs like this, with ceremonial bands of this very size, on piers and ships, at flagpoles, in parades, drill halls and, yes, hotel ballrooms. They'll probably sound pretty good. They're Navy musicians, after all, so they'll--

The conductor gives the downbeat and the music instantly fills the ballroom. Small in numbers, the band is giant in sound.Their dynamics are so well-planned, so well-executed that a dynamic swell beyond  mezzo-forte has the effect of a fortissimo. Yet even when playing softly, the sound is big, full, robust. Much of the music is familiar. In fact you've played many of these same Sousa marches and arrangements of patriotic favorites. Perhaps it's that familiarity that makes you ask: "Did my band sound this good?"

LT C.S. White conducts"Stars and Stripes Forever."

Sadly--or happily--this is a question that cannot be answered. True, a number of people have used the word "stellar" to describe last night's performance, and I think the adjective does not exaggerate. And the performance was captured in audio and video, which could help assess the band's fine points of art.

But technology records only sight and sound. No microphone can record memory's melodies. No camera preserves the emotional images of concerts in Mediterranean ports, graduations at Great Lakes, of underway replenishment, of rehearsals on the fantail, of late-night dances at the "O" Club and early morning inspections on the drill field. These experiences are preserved in a chamber of the heart that is impervious to microphones and cameras.

Perhaps this could all be said more simply: I don't know if I ever played in a band as good as the Fleet Forces Ceremonial Band, but I know I never played in a band whose rendition of "Anchors Aweigh" caused grown men to cry.

...that I will support and defend the Constitution...

MUCS Scott Davis readies for reenlistment.

The Saturday night dinner/dance of the NMA reunion started with solemnity: a reenlistment ceremony at which CAPT Brian O. Walden, commanding officer of the U.S. Navy Band, administered the oath of enlistment to MUSC Scott Davis of the U.S. Fleet Forces Band.

CAPT Walden administers the oath.

But first, CAPT Waldren addressed the roomful of veterans. "I'll read the oath slowly," he said, "so you can think about it. I ask you all to recommit yourselves to the support and defense of our Constitution."

Nobody objected to this assignment, and the ceremony began.

Lights out.

Taps. Taps. Lights out. All hands return to their racks and maintain silence about the decks.

Taps.