By Don Bedwell

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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.

Parris Island’s Show Band swings onstage at the Depot Lyceum. The P.I. band also includes a Dixieland jazz combo, a traditional jazz combo and a jazz ensemble.

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.

 

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