Klarinet Archive - Posting 000267.txt from 2007/09

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Military Bands
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:12:03 -0400

Vincent,

As I said in my post way back at the beginning of this thread, you are
assigned "according to the needs of" the service. Sure, there are
bandsmen in line bands who haven't been sent to Iraq, but there's
nothing to protect them from getting those orders tomorrow. The only
bands that are "stabilized assignments," meaning you are assigned there
and nowhere else for the duration of your enlistment, are the "special
bands" - the Washington bands, the U.S. Army Field Band, the West Point
band and the Air Force Band in , I think, Colorado. Any other band was,
when I was in the Field Band, a one year assignment and, after the year
was up, you could be re-assigned anywhere - a different band, infantry,
whatever was needed. Recruiters' job is to get you signed up - no matter
what they have to tell you. Even a written contract is easier for them
(not you) to breach in the military than it is in civilian organizations.

I don't know anything about the point system by which you've told us
they scored your audition. When I enlisted (to avoid being drafted into
the infantry during the Vietnam era) there was no score, or at least not
one that was shared with me. I was simply accepted by the commander of
the Field Band and arrangements were made from Fort Meade (the band's
home base) through the Office of the Chief of Information ("OCINFO" -
the army command to which the Field band was assigned) in Washington to
make sure I was assigned there after basic. All of that was pre-arranged
before I signed an enlistment contract and there was no score - just
pre-enlistment acceptance into the band. I'm going to assume Tom's
experience was similar to mine, although the difference between the
wartime Vietnam era and the relative peace that followed (when I think
Tom joined the band) may have led to changes in procedure.

One last point - again, my experience was during the Vietnam era when
there was an active draft that hung in the air as the only legal
alternative to enlisting if you were male, healthy, between 19 and 26
years old and already had an undergraduate degree. The guys who were
being accepted into the special bands for the most part already had
Bachelor's degrees, many in music. There was no one in the Field Band
during my time there fresh out of high school. Nor were they coming to
the Field Band from the Navy School of Music. Many of the "old-timers"
had been reassigned from infantry units, where they had served many
years in some cases. The young players who had not first been career
soldiers came from civilian universities.

I don't at all regret the three years I served in the Field Band. It was
a chance to make a steady living playing my instrument and I saw a great
deal of the United States and several other countries on the American
continents besides. But line bands are very different situations. There,
you are (or were) first a soldier and second a bandsman. It wasn't a
comfortable place to be during Vietnam, and I don't imagine it's any
more comfortable now, especially with no active draft to produce the
needed numbers of available troops.

You will make your decision for yourself. But don't make it based on
unwritten promises or hopes for how it *might* turn out. You are
thinking of joining the U.S. military, not General Motors. You can't
quit once you get there if you find out it isn't what you expected.

Karl Krelove

Vincent Horrillo wrote:
> I am sure that isn't an all out truth, I have talked to people that
> are in band and haven't been infantry. So I am aware that there are
> such things as exceptions.
>
> On 9/29/07, Mark Charette <charette@-----.org> wrote:
>
>> Vincent Horrillo wrote:
>>
>>> All of you that say you have heard of people being transfered out of
>>> the Marine Bands to go to Iraq, can you give me a bit more details.
>>> Like what they got on their audition, where they were stationed, how
>>> well they got along with their superiors, and possibly their ASVAB
>>> score.
>>>
>> The only thing you need to know, truly, is what Tom wrote:
>>
>> From: "Tom Puwalski" <tski1128@-----.com
>>
>>
>>>> Do not join a Marine band if you're not going to the Barracks in
>>>>
>>>>>> downtown DC. YOU WILL BE INFANTRY!!!!!!
>>>>>>
>> If you're not guaranteed, in writing, to go to the DC barracks then you
>> can (and will) go anywhere and do anything the Marines need you to do.
>> Period. Full stop.
>>
>> Mark "join the Navy & see the world *" Charette
>>
>> (* I did and I did. The world's 3/4 water, and I sure saw a lot of it)
>>
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