United States Military Bands
There are many military bands in the United States military. Some are assigned to specific military bases or units. There are also bands associated with each of the service academies.
Ten bands are considered to be premier, with members selected by screened competitive audition prior to enlisting in the particular service. Members of these bands often come from prestigious conservatories and schools of music. Each service may designate as many premier bands as necessary, usually to fulfill different needs. The United States Marine Band and the United States Coast Guard Band stand alone for their services. The United States Air Force Band and the United States Navy Band have each designated two. The United States Air Force Academy Band and the United States Naval Academy Band serve ceremonial and entertainment purposes at those institutions, while the U.S. Air Force Band and the U.S. Navy Band provide ceremonial and entertainment elements within the Washington D.C. area. The United States Army has designated four premier bands: the United States Army Band, primarily serving within the Washington D.C. area, the United States Army Field Band under the command of the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs and serving the entire nation, the United States Military Academy Band serving as do the bands in the other academies, and the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, serving as ceremonial support but in the style of the American Revolutionary era. All ten of these bands are considered permanent duty stations.
Other bands in all services are staffed with members who have enlisted in the relevant service, then passed an audition to attend one of the armed forces' music schools. Unlike the premier bands, these members are rotated among a services' bands serving at various installations. These bands may provide support at their designated installations, but also frequently deploy to combat zones to provide support for the troops stationed there.
They perform in parades, military parades, presidential inaugurations, state funerals, State Arrival Ceremonies or seated, in concert.
Read more about United States Military Bands: United States Army Band Program, United States Marine Band, United States Navy Band, United States Air Force Band, United States Coast Guard Band
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, military and/or bands:
“The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control—”indoctrination” we might say—exercised through the mass media.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“In the United States adherence to the values of the masculine mystique makes intimate, self-revealing, deep friendships between men unusual.”
—Myriam Miedzian, U.S. author. Boys Will Be Boys, introduction (1991)
“Institutions of higher education in the United States are products of Western society in which masculine values like an orientation toward achievement and objectivity are valued over cooperation, connectedness and subjectivity.”
—Yolanda Moses (b. 1946)
“We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)