Hi Mr. Mazza Pretty sure that in the Air Force, musicians are primarily musicians. One of my previous teacher/friend/mentor's played in the awesome USAF Band of Flight based here at Wright Patt in Fairborn and said that,iirc, all the bands' mission is basically to perform and entertain. The Army however is a different story. They have a lot more bands and a different hierarchy/tiers of ensembles. I do not know for certain, but I for some reason was under the impression that the top two tiers of bands basically play all the time, and the third tier is a mixed bag of day to day duties and that bands often do some guard duty....
Perhaps the hornlist's own Jared "The Russian Bear" Disbro can illuminate? Word on the street is that he's soon off to Heidelberg to play with the Army band stationed there and may be uniquely qualified to contribute to the thread..... Chris ----- Original Message ---- From: Ralph Mazza <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, January 29, 2010 3:45:56 PM Subject: [Hornlist] Military bands In 1957-1958 I was drum major of the Signal Corps band (349th, I think) and the band was our only duty assignment. Every enlisted GI had a "Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) then, and mine was 023.1, which I believe was "player, horn, French." A few years earlier, my oldest brother was a horn player in an Air Force band at Mitchell Field, Long Island NY, and he had no other duty assignment. After that my next older brother was a percussionist in an Air Force Band in California (March Field?) and he had no other duty assignment. Can things have changed so much in a mere 50+ years? Ralph Mazza _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/tedesccj%40yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
