Keeping Marine Corps Music Soaring

Donna Rathbone of Harrison, Ohio, listened enthralled as the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., band opened its concert at Kings High School, Kings Mill, Ohio, near Cincinnati, with a stirring rendition of “Esprit de Corps.”

In a school auditorium surrounded by applauding teenagers, Rathbone was on hand to cheer on her son-in-law, Corporal Kevin Dalton, a saxophonist in the 44-member band. It was her first opportunity to hear her daughter’s husband or his Marine band perform. “Aren’t they great?” she asked, clapping enthusiastically, as the band stormed to a rousing conclusion of the number. “I’m so proud!”

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christian E. Flores, principal conductor and officer in charge of the recruit depot’s band, acknowledged the audience’s praise. But the band’s primary mission was not to impress adults, but to reach students facing the challenge of selecting a career. On the band’s 10-day tour of Kentucky and Ohio high schools in May, Flores wanted to make sure young people didn’t overlook a rewarding future in the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps, whose fifers and drummers helped recruit young men to win the nation’s independence during the Revolutionary War, has grown into a renowned musical organization as well as an awesome combat force.

“The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in Washington understandably draws much of the attention, but a dozen Fleet Marine Corps bands serve with distinction from Quantico, Va., to Okinawa, Japan. Founded in 1915, the Marine Barracks Port Royal, S.C., band played for recruit graduations. That was the beginning of those bands providing morale-building music for military ceremonies and official activities.

They also serve as musical ambassadors for the Corps, supporting the Commandant’s national community-relations campaign by performing public concerts and marching in the nation’s leading parades to reinforce the Corps’ positive image and emphasize its value to the nation’s security. The national campaign has given bands outside Washington a more visible role in carrying the message to new audiences.

The Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Ga., band has performed recently in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Iowa, prompting CWO-4 Michael Edmonson, the band’s OIC, to describe the campaign as “a great strategic move” that has made the bands more proactive.

Marine music became an American institution on July 11, 1798, when President John Adams signed the congressional legislation creating the original Marine band. That band would earn the title “The President’s Own” by playing for every Commander in Chief since Adams. Today the band performs at more than 300 White House events each year and will play for its 56th presidential inaugural in January 2009. With its Marine Chamber Orchestra and other ensembles, the Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.-based band has grown to approximately 150 members, compared with about 50 in the other Marine bands.

Members of that elite group are the only Marine bandsmen who enter the music program directly and are not subject to deployment. Those selected for the other 12 bands undergo recruit training and combat training before they pick up an instrument. There is good reason for that focus on combat skills, since bandsmen have fought in all modern wars.

Musicians from five bands, representing the First and Second Marine divisions, Second and Third Marine aircraft wings, and Quantico, have served in Iraq, some on multiple deployments. Band members patrol dangerous Baghdad streets, protect convoys and man security posts at forward operating bases. As drum major Gunnery Sergeant Travis Antoine said of his Parris Island bandsmen, “These are 100 percent Marines in every sense of the word.”

The capability of Marine bands to perform their dual role was illustrated by the First Marine Division Band, which performed an award-winning concert in the spring of 2007, just 39 days after returning from fighting in Fallujah. In March 2008, a video recording of the concert at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, Calif., earned the band the prestigious Colonel George S. Howard [USAF, Ret] Citation of Musical Excellence for Military Concert Bands. Sponsored by the John Philip Sousa Foundation, the award draws competitors from military units around the world.

That award reflects the Corps’ successful efforts to strengthen the music program. CWO-4 James Ford, head of the program since 2002, credits Major Sid Snellings, who served as first program manager after Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps stood up a separate occupational field sponsor office in 1971. Previously, the director of the United States Marine Band served that function for all Marine Corps music, visiting the other bands every year or two to assess their effectiveness.

“Major Snellings, a captain at the time, made a lot of advancements that benefited the Fleet band program,” according to CWO-4 Ford. “Sid began a continuous, comprehensive, hands-on approach to managing the music program and influencing the education and focus of the leaders.”

Maj Snellings, who died in March, established a contract program that allowed qualified applicants to enlist as Fleet band musicians. He also established formal auditions, pushed the Marine Corps to open the musician field and bands to women and required Marine Corps musician participation in the Navy School of Music for basic music training.

The program was strengthened further with creation of the musician technical assistant (MTA), or musician placement director, billet in 1993. Lieutenant Colonel Clyde Croswell initiated that change when he headed the music program. Under the MTA program, which CWO-4 Ford supported while leading the San Diego band, outstanding musicians are selected to serve as music program managers for each of the Corps’ six recruiting districts. MTAs lead the recruiting of musicians for all 13 bands and “The Commandant’s Own” United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps.

“Having a music representative to be our program’s ambassador has paid immeasurable dividends,” according to CWO-2 Flores, who served a three-year tour as an MTA before becoming the Parris Island band’s OIC in 2004. Flores is one of six former MTAs now leading a Marine Corps band.

Typical of the breed is CWO-2 Joshua A. Stone, who has led the 1stMarDiv Band in peace and war for the past three years, following MTA duty. Stone, who joined the Corps in 1995, became a percussionist with the P.I. band and III Marine Expeditionary Force Band in Okinawa. He was selected to serve as the MTA for the 1st Marine Corps District (for the Northeastern states) in 2002, succeeding CWO-2 Flores. Deployed to Al Anbar province with the 1stMarDiv Band in the summer of 2006, CWO-2 Stone served as security officer for the Fallujah Development Center before returning to the States.

Other former MTAs include CWO-3 Mike Laird, who leads the 2dMarDiv Band; Warrant Officer Stephen Giove, Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., Band; CWO-2 Forest Brown, III MEF Band; and CWO-2 Ben Bartholomew, 2d MAW Band. CWO-3 Laird and Master Gunnery Sergeant Matt Farquhar, enlisted conductor and staff noncommissioned OIC at the Navy School of Music, Naval Amphibious Base Norfolk, Va., were among the earliest MTAs. Several current drum majors and enlisted conductors also served as MTAs.

The assignment is a demanding one that requires long days and extensive travel throughout a multistate district. “Musician recruiters spend [a typical] week on the road giving career talks at schools, speaking to faculty and conducting auditions and clinics,” said Staff Sergeant Mike Stanley, an outstanding instrumentalist who served as small-ensemble leader and enlisted conductor before his selection as MTA of the 4th Marine Corps District, based in New Cumberland, Pa.

According to SSgt Stanley, MTAs also help schedule Marine band tours in their districts to support recruiting efforts. “Marine bands are the keepers of tradition,” he said. “The message of honor, courage and commitment is a story each of our bands will deliver with the Marine Corps story. There is no more powerful conduit for delivering this message than with a Marine band performance.”

MTAs work closely with local recruiters, training them to identify applicants with musical aspirations whom they can refer to the district MTA for an interview and audition. Those who qualify can be promised band duty under the Musician Enlistment Option Program, or MEOP, but qualifying isn’t easy.

The tightened audition process ensures that every musician will be able to perform at the Corps’ high standards. Each brass and woodwind applicant must demonstrate mastery of an instrument and knowledge of musical theory. They must perform a prepared solo, sight-read various styles of music and demonstrate an understanding of all major and minor scales “throughout the practical range of the instrument.” Percussionists face their own daunting requirements.

Few high school musicians can meet the high standards of today’s bands, even after passing muster to become Marine recruits. Therefore, even though MTAs consider it important to plant the idea of a Marine band career early with high school students, they spend more time canvassing college music programs to find those who can qualify through MEOP. Colleges and universities remain the MTAs’ main market for scouting talent.

Signing up qualified musicians for a four-year MEOP active-duty tour isn’t always an easy sell. Most exceptional students aspire to a future in a symphony or popular jazz groups. Their mentors often urge them to pursue such a course despite a ruthlessly competitive market where more than 100 applicants may compete for a single symphonic opening.

“Marine music is always battling for the best musicians willing to serve their country,” said CWO-2 Flores. “It can be extremely difficult to convince parents that this is a viable option, but sometimes their instrumental mentors are the biggest obstacle. Unless their music teacher or college professor supports their decision, we usually have to wait a few years for applicants to find out for themselves that this is the best option.”

Being Marines, the recruiters are well-armed when they go into the fight for talent. They can offer qualified applicants the opportunity to work as full-time musicians for full-time pay, traveling and performing in concert halls and at prestigious events around the country and abroad. Band members attend advanced training at the Navy School of Music or qualify for instrument-repair school. They receive regular promotions, drawing increased pay.

SSgt Stanley said the Corps can promise qualified college graduates incentives “easily comparable to what entry-level band directors receive.” What’s more, they can continue their education through the Tuition Assistance Program. And, of course, few incentives can match the pride of becoming a Marine.

Attesting to the attractiveness of a Marine Corps career are the many former school band directors and other musical professionals in the ranks of Marine bands. Further evidence is high retention among the men and women who opt for a career in Marine music, a clear indication of job satisfaction. The highest reenlistment numbers, in fact, are found among the bands that have been deployed.

Still, recruiters have to compete against other service programs that may offer more generous enlistment incentive programs and don’t deploy musicians to combat areas. Some students and their parents clearly shy away from a possible combat commitment. Yet the disconnect between other services’ band programs and primary defense responsibilities have left them vulnerable to recent cutbacks, at a time when the Marine program is being bolstered.

“Some other services have experienced cuts largely because they have drifted away from their primary role as military musicians,” according to SSgt Stanley. “Our emphasis on being Marines first and foremost will always place us in the traditional role of Marine musicians. If that means picking up a weapon and standing a post, then we will do that too.”

When an applicant survives initial screening, the MTA has the final say on whether he or she qualifies for the music program. Yet no applicant simply is turned away because of failing to make the cut musically. “We don’t turn our backs on those who fail to qualify as musicians, leaving the applicant and the recruiter high and dry,” SSgt Stanley said. “We explain the other options available through a Marine Corps career.”

CWO-2 Flores said the students who make their way to the stage after his band’s concerts are interested not only in the music program, but “they view our band as an example of the many opportunities that the Marine Corps offers and assume they can expect the same level of professionalism in every occupation.”

SSgt Brian Brickey, a recruiter for the southwest Ohio district that includes Kings High School, agreed. “Concerts such as the one the Parris Island band delivered at the local school are an awesome way to educate people about the Marines,” he said. “The bands are able to project through their music what it means to be a Marine.”

While MTAs welcome every new recruit signed up for the Corps, they still are responsible for finding the qualified men and women needed to fill band slots that open up each year in a program that numbers nearly 1,000 musicians. Fortunately, generally steady band enlistment numbers have allowed recruiters to continue signing up the highly talented, highly motivated instrumentalists needed to keep Marine Corps music soaring.

“We get some resistance from family members at times, but we are in a position to turn people away,” said SSgt Stanley. “If they don’t like the fact that we deploy, they can join the Navy or Air Force bands. We want those young men and women who will accept the challenge of becoming a Marine.”

Editor’s note: Don Bedwell, who followed his two brothers into the Corps and served with the First Marine Division Band in the 1950s, still plays trumpet in a Dixieland band in Cincinnati. He watched his grandson graduate from Parris Island in June.

I'm all for the band being able to stop/start a minor action. And do it with style and panache.

God bless these Marines.

/johnny

“Don’t like it that we’re at odds over McCain?”

I didn’t know that we were...LOL

Hey, I’m not crazy about the guy myself but I’ll just hold my nose, like I’ve been doing for the past 20 years, and vote “R” because my fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Marines and I cannot accept the alternative. Not to mention the possibility that Obama, if elected, would probably nominate the next 2-3 Supreme Court judges that would kill(pun intended) any chances of a reversal of Roe in my lifetime and the chances of ten of millions of babies being saved.

Semper Fi,
Kelly

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