Memorial Day ceremonies #18 - 300th Army band by goodoleboy
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Description
Captured 5/25/09, at the beautiful Los Angeles National Cemetery in beautiful West Los Angeles, California.
More than 86,000 veterans, going back to the Civil War, are interred there.
A ZOOM is strongly recommended in this series.
I hope you like band music because I'm posting two uploads of the US Army band for today and tomorrow.
Top photo shows them at ease in preparation for the concert. The bottom four pics show them plying their musical skills. If you were wondering, during the period the pictures were taken they were playing "This is my country."
As for the uniforms, I know it's subjective, so what I have to say will probably engender some argument and/or outrage from the viewers. The uniforms are a far cry from what I wore way back when. These fatigues look pretty good, a lot better than what I wore, although I would have preferred more of an olive drab effect. On the minus side, the boot colors don't match the rest of the uniform and should at least be darker in shade. As for the berets, IMHO, they're so fashion plate wimpy, they've got to go. How about a little decorum? I believe the business with berets for the military began in Europe.
Tallyho.
Comments (12)
Annihilator-6
Excellent subject!
bmac62
Hi Harry, Always love a military band. There aren't many of them these days. By any chance did you get the unit designation of this band? Army bands are extremely selective on who they take. I will wager that a number of these young people have degrees in music (likely all of them) and have taught music elsewhere. It has been that way for years. I hold military band members in high regard. Berets are a bit wimpy and the troops don't like 'em...nothing to keep the sun or rain off your face and a pain to keep from looking like you've got a sagging pizza on your head. They came in for espirit...???... The boots...standard desert issue...that's all there is at the moment. Sorry for the grand run-on here:-)
M2A
Army musicians are a very interesting unit. Thanks for the photo.
Digitaleagle
Another interesting collage in this series well done!!
jocko500
wonderful looking here
ledwolorz
Fantastic photos.
MrsRatbag
Sorry to be so late to the game here, I've had some connectivity issues today. I agree with your fashion comments; I've always had issues with those berets, my eyes want to skip right over them and pretend they never happened. The boots don't look comfortable or serious. And forget that camouflage, please. It just doesn't work for me. But your shots are excellent, more pieces of the picture of the day!
lizzibell
great capture...
Hendesse
Another great collage of interesting shots. I'm glad to have nothing more to do with the military. After 15 months basis military service when I was young and after some reserve trainings I'm now withdrawn from service. :)
Meisiekind
Lovely collage of the band Harry! LOL @ Denise's comment! :)
durleybeachbum
Very interesting pictures, I love military bands.
anahata.c
I spoke with a military man who worked with several military bands, and he backed everything Bill said. And I looked up some bands on the web too. He's right about the music degrees. And the beret in the military did in fact come from Europe; and as I understand it, it's only given to specialized troops and is cheap and flexible enough to be carried in the pocket, which I guess is what they wanted for a band. I agree about the boots too. But what you & other may also be responding to is the lack of pomp as they prepare & then play. The pre shot—really fine choice to show us Harry!—shows them just talking amongst themselves as musicians do before a number, not showing any of the decorum you'd expect just before a military performance. And the playing-shots show them in all kinds of different poses (as musicians show especially in bands and rehearsals, etc): some feet flat, some pulled up, some postures straight, some slouched, etc etc. Funny though: Because in a major classical orchestra, you have much more 'military' posture: The famous conductors can strike terror into the hearts of those musicians, and that means something as some of those musicians are among the finest in the world. (And that's just a conductor! So what about the military?) So I'm kind of surprised that musicians representing the military are kind of playing as if in rehearsal. Now I'm a musician, so I mean no disrespect to these musicians, believe me: I'm just surprised they don't have a more military 'presence' in this of all ceremonies. Well there's my 2 cents...but your choice of shots made it possible to think about all these things. Don't know if you're a musician, but you sure caught the milieu of musicians at work. Fine work once more, Harry. Always making us look & think...