THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 TAG: 9503210114
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINDSOR LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
AS JIM BUCKLER'S FINGERS pound out the lively original jazz melody on the electronic keyboard, his daughter, Krissy, bounces on toddler toes and erupts into applause.
``She is beginning to follow in our footsteps,'' says Buckler, 30, proudly lifting 1-year-old Krissy up to the keyboard in the den of their home near downtown Windsor.
And though the little girl is just learning to walk, she has some big shoes to fill. Her father, a U.S. Army staff sergeant stationed at Petersburg's Fort Lee, plays the saxophone and piano in the Fort Lee Army Band. And her mother, Sgt. Sherri Buckler, 26, plays the clarinet in that band.
The Bucklers and other Fort Lee Army Band members are not weekend warriors who merely play for amusement. They are full-time, active-duty soldiers armed with different weapons - trombones, flutes, tubas, drums - for a different mission: defending morale.
``You only need to ask the soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, where there were no radios or televisions, how important military bands are,'' says the band's commander, Chief Warrant Officer John Darling. ``Our mission there was to keep up soldiers' morale by taking their minds out of the doldrums when they didn't have anything to do.
``The morale of the troops in Desert Storm was high. . . . The importance of our mission is elevated since Desert Storm because people now understand the importance of what military bands do.''
But they don't always understand how military bands do what they do, says Sgt. 1st Class George Pond. He lives in Carrollton and makes the early morning drive to Petersburg five days a week to play the trombone and euphonium in the Fort Lee band.
Behind every Fort Lee Army Band performance are hours and hours of rehearsals, Pond says. But there is more to the performers' military lives than reading notes and playing music.
``First and foremost, we are soldiers. We have to meet the same standards every other soldier in the Army must meet,'' Pond says. ``We have to know first aid, weaponry, how to react if we were involved in a chemical attack, how to camouflage ourselves.''
In addition, before they can become military musicians these soldiers have to have had years of experience playing an instrument and must pass a rigorous audition.
``People may think this is easy,'' Pond says. ``I'd like them to try marching around playing a horn in time with everyone else in the band for two hours. It is hard, physically demanding work.''
And not everyone gets a chance to do it. Darling says budget cuts and military downsizing have forced musicians to become increasingly competitive for the remaining 1,200 U.S. Army band seats available worldwide. Only about 10 percent of those who audition for Army bands each year are accepted, he says.
Those who do make the initial cut must go military before they go musical. Just like other enlistees, they first spend eight weeks in boot camp learning the basics of soldiering. Then they head off for six months of musical training with musicians from the Navy and Marine Corps - the Air Force and Coast Guard have their own schools - at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base School of Music in Virginia Beach. There, they learn the military marching style, receive private instrument instruction and learn military jazz and concert music.
But even in wartime, the skills these Army musicians use most will be their music, Darling says.
``Only when the threat of enemy attack is so prevalent that we need to protect ourselves, do we make the transition into defensive position.''
Although military requests always take precedence, Army bands send out groups of performers into the areas surrounding their home bases. Upon request, the musicians will perform and hold music-skills clinics - at no cost - at high schools, colleges, community festivals and other public events throughout the region.
In addition to performing as a full concert band, the Fort Lee Army Band often breaks down into small groups that make appearances up and down the East Coast, Darling says. For example, Fort Lee has a stage band that performs big-band music, pop-combos that play Top 40 hits, a jazz quartet and even rock and country bands.
``So many people aren't even aware that Petersburg has a band or that our performances are open for the public,'' Jim Buckler says. ``We're here, and we want people to know it.''
The most important performance for an Army band member is bugling at a military funeral, Pond says. The family of anyone who served more than 180 days active duty in the U.S. Army can request that a military bugler play ``Taps'' at the deceased's funeral.
``Funeral detail is the sacred cow,'' Pond says. ``Our highest priority is bugling . . . because it is our final farewell to our fallen comrades and his family and the service he had paid to his country.''
The Bucklers and Pond see performing with the Fort Lee band as a creative, enjoyable way to spend their lives as soldiers.
``My father was a high school band director and one of the great sax players of our time,'' says Jim Buckler, a former Marine. ``I grew up playing the sax and always wanted to be a Marine. I joined the band because I figured I may as well do something I'm good at in the Marines.''
It was a friend's suggestion that sent Pond, 43, into an Army band career that has spanned 16 years and carried him and his wife, Dianne, all over the country. Just last year, they returned from a three-year assignment in Fairbanks, Alaska.
After graduating from Churchland High School in 1970, Pond enlisted in the Army and served three years performing in a band touring Vietnam. At the end of tour, he earned a music-education degree from California State University in Fresno and returned home to teach at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy in Suffolk.
``I liked working with the students, but I missed performing,'' Pond says. ``When the Fort Monroe Army Band was performing at N-SA, an old high school buddy in that band mentioned they needed a trombone player and suggested I audition.''
Despite their time on the road commuting between Isle of Wight County and Petersburg, both Pond and Jim and Sherri Buckler say they are happy making the sacrifices demanded by their careers.
``I'm living somewhere that I love,'' Pond says, ``and have a career doing what I love.'' MEMO: Related story on page 6.
ABOUT THE BAND\ U.S. Army bands will perform free at occasions -
such as festivals, parades and at schools - in the communities that
surround their bases.
Army bands are prohibited from performing at fund-raisers or at
events that will benefit any one person, group or business.
The performances must be open to the public.
The services of the Army bands are free within a 50-mile radius of
their respective bases. After that, the organization sponsoring the
event is responsible for travel, food, and, if required, lodging
expenses.
Fort Monroe's Army Band is closest to Isle of Wight County and
usually serves this area, says Ann Harrison, community relations officer
at Fort Lee, in Petersburg. But the Fort Lee Army Band often coordinates
performances with Fort Monroe and is willing to travel to Isle of Wight
County.
The band must be booked at least 60 days in advance.
Military band obligations always take precedence over other
assignments.
For more information about booking performances by the Fort Lee Army
Band, call Harrison at 804-765-3102.
For information on the Fort Monroe Army Band's services, call
804-727-3205.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by John H. Sheally II
Fort Lee Army Band members George Pond, left, and Sherri and Jim
Buckler warm up before a practice session.
Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Fort Lee Army Band practices as a group at the Officers' Club at
the post. Behind every band performance are hours and hours of
rehearsals.
KEYWORDS: MILITARY BAND by CNB