Oboe Player Gets Into the Fight

American Forces Press Service ^ | Gunnery Sgt. Brenda L. Varnadore, USMC

[SandRat]

HIT, Iraq, Oct. 30, 2007 – When Marine Commandant Gen. James T. Conway earlier this year sent a message to all Marines titled, “Every Marine into the fight,” he gave an oboe player with the Marine band at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Center an opportunity he thought would never materialize.

Marine Sgt. Regan Young, an oboe player by trade, poses for a photograph in Hit, Iraq. The Arlington, Va., native is serving as the police sergeant for 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, after requesting to deploy under the commandant of the Marine Corps' guidance of “Every Marine into the fight.” Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Brenda L. Varnadore, USMC  
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Sgt. Regan Young joined the Marine Corps during 2004 with an open contract in the hopes of seeing the world and experiencing life outside of Arlington, Va., where he was born and raised. However, he ended up with a military occupational specialty, one of only a very few, that is rarely deployed because oboe players are so rare in the Marine Corps.

“I didn’t join the Marine Corps to go in the band,” the 21-year-old said. “I had done that my whole life and wanted something new under my belt.”

Young began playing the oboe at Yorktown High School and found he was excellent at it. He said his love for the instrument is one he will always have, but that he wanted as a passion, not as a job.

“My recruiter knew I played the oboe,” he said. “During the first phase of boot camp, we were practicing for initial drill, and I got called out and there was a recruiter, my senior drill instructor and all my chain of command. They started asking me questions about what I played and how long I have been playing. Once I auditioned, they told me I was going to be in the band. I didn’t really have a choice. It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to do it; I just wanted to do something else.”

Young’s chance to do something else arrived when the commandant said no Marine would be held back from answering their nation’s call. After reading the message, Young immediately put in an administrative action form requesting to “go forward.”

“After I put in my AA form, I would literally bug my company commander two to three times a day,” Young said. “He was all about Marines deploying and really helped push to get me here. I later learned it may not have been the AA form that got me here, but after six months of bugging the right people and just constant persistence, the powers that be said, ‘Fine if this is what you want, we are going to give it to you.’”

Now, Young is the assistant camp commandant and police sergeant with 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, serving in Hit, Iraq. He said the Marines he works with understand how hard he fought, so they bring him out on missions with them.

“It is everything I imagined,” Young said. “I love interacting with the people, seeing a different culture. Being deployed with an infantry battalion is letting me get a taste of the Marine Corps I never would have had the opportunity to see, and I don’t plan on wasting it.”

Young plans on returning to the band when he returns to the States. He wants to perfect saxophone skills he has learned since joining the service.

“I burned some bridges, but I think that was only people who took it personally and felt like I didn’t want to be with them in the band. But, what it was is, I just wanted to do something different,” Young said. “If I could be in any band, it would be the Marine Corps Band. I just don’t think people join the Marine Corps to play music; that wasn’t my intent. I love the Marine Corps and have had a great career so far. I think it is only going to get better. But, I am never happy staying with one thing, that is why this job is so great for me.”

(Gunnery Sgt. Brenda L. Varnadore is assigned to 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.)

[SandRat]

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[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

The really SMART move the Marines should make is to put this guy in a burkka and have him troll the streets of Baghdad playing his oboe. That would be GREAT PsyOps! :-)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

BTW, John Phillips Sousa modeled his band AFTER his service to the country on the great US Marine Corps band that he conducted. The Univ. of Illinois Marching Illini was founded by one of Sousa's best trumpet players and still performs street marching akin to the US Marine Corps bands on its way to and from every football game at the stadium.

Sign me,
Univ. of Illinois Marching Illini "Fossil Band" alumni member

[Squantos]

As long as he can make an AT-4 look and sound like a Oboe !

[padre35]

So did Reagen Young complete basic training and then join the band or did he go into the band automatically skipping completing the course of study?

Either way he is pretty dog gone brave.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

There would be much wailing and knashing of teeth to try to get that oboe to shut up! :-)

OK..... I can't resist.

Q: What's the difference between an oboe and a recorder (the wooden instrument kind)?

A: The oboe burns longer!!!!

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

As long as he can make an AT-4 look and sound like a Oboe !

'An ill wind that nobody blows good.'

[Bahbah]

So did Reagen Young complete basic training and then join the band or did he go into the band automatically skipping completing the course of study?

I read a piece here some time ago that said all of the members of the Marine band go through training first and they are not sorta kinda Marines, they are real Marines.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

A good friend of mine, the son of my high school band director, went through the Marine Corps basic training then ended up a Lance Corporal playing in the Commandant's Own Drum and Bugle Corps unit. And yes, he looked like someone you wouldn't want to take on in a fight!

[padre35]

I ask because the peacenik (George?) Fox was a one time member of the Marine Band but did not complete Marine Corps basic training.

That and many people forget that Hildebeast tried to make the Marine Corps band switch uniforms or something similar.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

See my post above for an answer to your question.

Any Marine Corps musician must go through recruit training and Marine Combat training after enlisting.

[VOA]

Oboe Player Gets Into the Fight

As I always say at the appropriate time during the intro to
PBS's "NOVA"...

"Cue the oboe!"

A tough instrument to play well, that's for sure.

[Squantos]

LOL !

[Billthedrill]

...they are real Marines.

Yep. Every Marine is a rifleman. This one is also a gentleman. A gentleman is a fellow who can play oboe and doesn't.

OK, so I stole it from the bagpipe players. So shoot me...

[Bahbah]

LOL.

[sionnsar]

'An ill wind that nobody blows good.'

Hey! That line belongs to our bagpipes! (My teacher played pipes in the Army, but they didn't make it his job.)

Pipes and Drums of FreeRepublic ping! (No pipes but an oboe.)

This is an ultra-low-volume ping list (typically weeks to months between pings).
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this list.

Going to the Games? Organize a Clan FReeper get-together!

[randita]

Any Marine Corps musician must go through recruit training and Marine Combat training after enlisting.

Not true. Members of the President's Own Marine Band (the best of the best) DO NOT have to go through recruit training or combat training. I know this personally because one on my family members is affiliated with that band. The idea behind this policy is that the President's Own wants the absolute best musicians they can get and by requiring members to undergo physical training, that might discourage the best musicians from auditioning. Marines are all about being the best, in whatever area of Marine Corps service you're in. Other bands in the Marine Corps are not exempted from training - only the President's Own. In extreme circumstances such as a widespread deployment, members of the President's Own might be required to do a desk job related to a war, but they would never be deployed in a combat situation.

As far as I know, the Navy Band at Annapolis and Pershing's Army Band (the best bands in those branches) DO have to take physical and combat training.

[sionnsar]

Q: What's the difference between an oboe and a recorder (the wooden instrument kind)?
A: The oboe burns longer!!!!

Fipple Flutes Forever!!

[sionnsar]

OK, so I stole it from the bagpipe players. So shoot me...

Bagpipes at three paces, sir! Last one standing wins.