Gameday in My Army/Navy Neighborhood

The annual Army/Navy game gets a lot of attention in my neighborhood. I'm a Navy vet; my father and grandfather served in the Navy, as did my wife's father and grandfather.  

Our neighbors have an emotional investment in the game, too. All year long, the Browns display an Army flag in their yard, honoring their three sons who have served in the Army National Guard. 

Every year, a few days before the game, I put up a few "Go Navy, Beat Army" signs in my front yard. I'm not talking about discreet reminders. I'm talking sawhorses, aimed at the Browns' front porch. 

Somewhere along the line, the Browns' Army flag shows up in my yard. Their sons launched these stealthy flag-planting missions when they were young guardsmen. Those soldiers are raising their own families now, but their parents have maintained the tradition.

Eventually, Saturday's game comes. Whenever a team scores, I step out the kitchen door with my beat-up trumpet and serenade the neighborhood with that team's service song.

"Anchors Aweigh" got no airtime this year. Navy lost, and I don't like it one stinking bit.

But, win or lose, the tradition endures. Every year, after the game, I replant the Browns' Army flag in their front yard. And, on those years when Army has won, I stand in front of the Brown's house in the frigid Illinois prairie wind and play the Army Song.

This ritual is not self-punishment; it's the ceremonial manner by which I acknowledge my loss and move on. Losing is part of life, the bitter seasoning that gives victory its flavor. 

That's easy to say when you've won. But it's good to remember when you're standing on the tundra, trying to remember valve fingerings.

Shipmate Frank: Dealing with B.S.

The 1980 School of Music Army/Navy game taught me an important lesson.

Until We Meet Once More...

"See you next year, shipmate."

"I swear this stuff fit in the
car when we drove here."

If we'd had an NMA reunion this year, right now we'd be turning in our hotel keys and rolling luggage carts to our cars. The words "See you next year" would echo throughout the hotel.

When we return home from a reunion, we quickly resume our regularly-scheduled lives. In my case, this often includes a visit from Navy Band Great Lakes for Navy Week in my western Illinois area. Later in July, I usually spend a week at the University of Iowa City Summer Writing Festival. In August, my wife and I take a weekend anniversary trip.

Like the reunion, these events are ingrained into my summer. And, like the reunion, they're not happening this year. If there's such a thing as a "return to normal," I haven't seen it on the calendar.

MUs like to know the schedule. Ashore, we congregate in the passageway around the gig board and pencil updates into notebooks. At sea, we ignore the chief's droning voice at morning quarters until he says, "Change thirteen," when our ears suddenly become finely-calibrated sonar receivers.

It's all different this year, as we face future packed with unknowns.

But although we're not milling around the hotel lobby this morning, jiggling our car keys and sharing last hugs, one thing is exactly the same as it always on our last Sunday together:

There's only a year to go until the NMA reunion!

Final NMA Reunion in Review: 2019

Carl Gerhard leads concert band in rehearsal
of "Americ, the Beautiful," featuring vocalist
MUC Audra Radliff.

We'll finish our week of NMA reunions with last year's bash in Milwaukee.

Carl Gerhard, our reunion coordinator, put this one together in style. Our hotel rooms were comfortable and spacious, our working spaces convenient, and the staff more than accomodating.

And, speaking of style, our Saturday-night dinner/dance featured a visit from Navy Band Great Oakes. The ceremonial band thrilled us and Chief Radliff sent a few jolts of electricity through the ballroom with her rendition of "America, the Beautiful."

We thanked Wilbur Smith for his years of dedicated service as conductor of the concert band and cheered as he announced that Ray Ascione had agreed to take the helm of that vital ensemble.

To enjoy day-by-day NavyLyres coverage of the 2017 reunion chronologically:

• Click here, then 
• Scroll down and read posts from bottom to top.

NMA Reunion in Review: 2015

The 2015 reunion stands out in our minds for a few reasons.

Our 20th anniversary reunion drew a record number of MUs. Attendance at our first concert band rehearsal is often terrifyingly small. But this year, the first rehearsal was overflowing, and the band got bigger every day. Naturally, the full attendance carried over to a full sound at our Friday-night concert.

We visited our alma mater, now called the Naval School of Music. The newly-renovated facility may not feature ivy-covered walls, but the building still echoes with the haunting memories of buffers, Brillo pads and vacuum cleaners.

To enjoy day-by-day NavyLyres coverage of the 2015 reunion chronologically:

• click here, then 
• scroll down and read posts from bottom to top.

NMA Reunion in Review: 2008

Today is a visit back to my first NMA Reunion Live-Blog: Memphis in 2008.

I'd like to say that it's crude coverage, my first dive into something that got better with time and experience. I'd also like to say that J-Lo just dropped by and handed me a check for $600 million dollars.

My arch-enemy Lee Hudson, was in attendance. The back-stabbing bum and I hadn't seen each other since 1985, and time had not improved the relationship between that back-stabbing, high-pitched-whining, tuba-mauling buffoon and me. Like typical Navy shipmates, we picked up right where we'd left off.

To enjoy day-by-day NavyLyres coverage of the 2017 reunion chronologically, click here, then scroll down and read posts from bottom to top.

NMA Reunion in Review: 2017

I learned much about leadership
from MUCM Jim Thumpston.

The 2017 NMA reunion brought us home again to Virginia Beach.

Ray Ascione assisted Wilbur Smith in conducting the NMA Concert Band. He did so well that many of us thought, "Gee, if Wilbur ever retires as conductor, Ray would be a great choice to succeed him."

(In fact, Ray has since taken over as conductor of the concert band. Were it not for the pandemic, he'd be at the NMA podium today, whipping us into shape for Friday's concert. Well, not really whipping. Those of us who played under Ray's baton at the Naval Academy or School of Music know he leads not by terror, but by inspiration.)

You'll notice a photo of Jim Thumpston I stumbled across at the reunion. It reminded me that if I hadn't waited so long to come to an NMA reunion, I could have met up with "Thumper," my old teacher,  shipmate and mentor.

To enjoy day-by-day NavyLyres coverage of the 2017 reunion chronologically:

• click here, then 
• scroll down and read posts from bottom to top.

NMA Reunion in Review: 2010

San Antonio will stay forever in my mind as the hottest place on Planet Earth. "But it's a dry heat," you may say, "and there's a nice breeze." I can only respond, "There's also a nice breeze inside a Maytag dryer when it's spinning on the permanent press cycle, but you wouldn't want to spend a week in there."

The hotel, of course, was comfortable; not for nothing is Texas called The Air Conditioning State.

I hadn't seen my old friend John Derby attended in thirty-something years, and we picked up right where we'd left off in 1977. That's how reunions work.

To enjoy day-by-day NavyLyres coverage of the 2010 reunion chronologically:

Click here, then scroll down and read posts from bottom to top.

NMA Reunion in Review: 2013

Let's begin revisiting our NMA reunions with a review of our 2013 get-together in Virginia Beach.

This was a big one. Our "homeport" reunions are always well attended--this year, we had to add an extra page to the sign-in roster.


The week of camaraderie and music was marred only by fears that Terry Chesson might play the clarinet. Fortunately, the NMA Threat-Response Team was able to prevent disturbance.

To enjoy--or endure--day-by-day NavyLyres coverage of the 2013 reunion chronologically:

Click here, then scroll down and read posts from bottom to top.

NMA Reunions in Review

Today is the day I planned to be unpacking my suitcase in Virginia Beach, hugging old friends and proudly scrawling my name on the sign-in sheet for tomorrow's start of the 2020 NMA Reunion.


This, we know, is not to be. When the severity of the pandemic became clear, NMA President Whitham solicited the views of the board of directors and made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 NMA reunion.

I hated it but knew it was the right thing to do. Many of our members could not participate in close-quarters work and socializing and make up an NMA reunion, five days of sitting together on the bandstand and in the lounge to play, laugh, lie, and remember.


Every year since 2008, I've posted online reunion coverage with shipmates around the world,  a "Live-Blog" of daily photos, videos, commentary and slander. It's an exciting project that spreads reunion joy with the MUs who cannot attend the reunion in person.

Well, I can't control world events, but I can control my computer. So, tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16, and every day through Saturday, I'll post the Live-Blog coverage of a past reunion. Recent reunions, long-gone reunions--the good, the bad and the ugly will be on display. In a sense, every day will be an NMA reunion. Kinda, sorta.

Of course, we all understand that nothing can take the place of a real thing. But we're all doing the best we can right now, with our families, our jobs, our careers and communities. As veterans and active-duty sailors, we are not strangers to enduring rough seas and looking forward to brighter horizons.

Boy, I'm missing you guys already.

7th Fleet Band--1986 Trip to Sydney, Australia on USS Paul F. Foster

Most of my 7th Fleet Band sailing was aboard the Blue Ridge, where I learned a truth given in the Bible:

Mark 6:4: A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

Modern translation: You don't get respect from those at home.

Navy band translation: They treat you like crap on the Blue Ridge.

It took a trip on a different ship to show me this truth. In the fall of 1986, the 7th Fleet Band flew to Guam to meet a destroyer, USS Paul F. Foster, which took us to Sydney, Australia to participate in the multinational celebration of the 75th-anniversary celebration of the Royal Australian Navy.

The officers and crew of the Foster welcomed us warmly and could not have been more accommodating:

XO: Glad to have you aboard. What do you need?

LCDR Mike Pesses: Do you have a spare corner where the band could rehearse?

XO: I'll shut down the wardroom between meals. Anything else?

LCDR: Well, I wonder if you have some space we can stow our gear.

XO: The skipper says you can use his in-port cabin. It's right by the gangplank, so you'll have an easy off-load when we arrive in Sydney. Anything else?

The band members responded with equally gentlemanlike behavior--for the most part. Problem was, the Foster was crossing the equator en route to Sydney, and two of the 7th Fleet Band's personnel were polliwogs. Those two were the bandmaster, LCDR Mike Pesses, and the chief, MUC Frank Mullen.

"Crossing the line" is a unique Navy event during which rank hath no privilege. Naturally, the crew and the band spent days terrorizing the boss and me with stories of punishment that made waterboarding sound like a dip in a wading pool. But when initiation day arrived, it was all good fun. Stinking, degrading, disgusting and demeaning good fun.

USS Paul F. Foster 1986 cruise book. (Click on image to enlarge.)

I have no idea why the Blues Brothers are
patting down a Fender Rhodes piano.

Cancellation of 2020 Reunion

NMA President Dwaine Whitham has asked me to post this. With sadness and the realization that it's the right decision, I do so:

After much thought and consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided to cancel the 2020 NMA Reunion in Virginia Beach. We looked at other options, such as postponing the reunion to a later date, but decided it would be in the best interests of our organization and members to cancel the event and start focusing on great 2021 reunion. The safety, health and welfare of our members remain our biggest priority. We wish you well and look forward to seeing you in 2021!