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USMA Band


letsgiveacheer

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First, huge congratulations to the coaches and team for this great turnaround season. We may have a real program yet while I'm still vertical. I could not attend the game but enjoyed every word on the radio and followed many of the comments on social media.

I suspect most people do not know that the West Point band is not made of cadets, rather they are NCO's that audition for the vacancies just like they would for an orchestra. They enter at a higher rank than the usual recruit to allow for their advanced training. Many of them have doctorates, for example.

You may enjoy knowing there are a large number of UNT grads in the band. Here is an interesting article from their website about this which really speaks highly of the UNT College of Music.

https://westpointband.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/mean-green-to-army-green/

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58 minutes ago, letsgiveacheer said:

First, huge congratulations to the coaches and team for this great turnaround season. We may have a real program yet while I'm still vertical. I could not attend the game but enjoyed every word on the radio and followed many of the comments on social media.

I suspect most people do not know that the West Point band is not made of cadets, rather they are NCO's that audition for the vacancies just like they would for an orchestra. They enter at a higher rank than the usual recruit to allow for their advanced training. Many of them have doctorates, for example.

You may enjoy knowing there are a large number of UNT grads in the band. Here is an interesting article from their website about this which really speaks highly of the UNT College of Music.

https://westpointband.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/mean-green-to-army-green/

And...do you know the ONLY service academy of the five federal academies that Does have an all cadet/midshipman marching band?  There is one and only one as I explained to my HOD Bowl next seat neighbor.   This academy marching band also has played/marched in just about every presidential inauguration parade since the academy's inception.

No fair using goggle, etc.. You know?

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11 minutes ago, KRAM1 said:

And...do you know the ONLY service academy of the five federal academies that Does have an all cadet/midshipman marching band?  There is one and only one as I explained to my HOD Bowl next seat neighbor.   This academy marching band also has played/marched in just about every presidential inauguration parade since the academy's inception.

No fair using goggle, etc.. You know?

Without goggles: I thought both USCGA and USMMA had cadet/mid marching bands.

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10 minutes ago, BeatNavy said:

Without goggles: I thought both USCGA and USMMA had cadet/mid marching bands.

Ding...ding...ding...we have a winner.  And, he was even better than the questioner!  As BeatNavy so correctly stated...there are two...The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) and the United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) have midshipmen marching bands.  I completely forgot about Coast Guard even though I have personally seen them in action several times.  Well played BeatNavy.

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44 minutes ago, KRAM1 said:

Ding...ding...ding...we have a winner.  And, he was even better than the questioner!  As BeatNavy so correctly stated...there are two...The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) and the United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) have midshipmen marching bands.  I completely forgot about Coast Guard even though I have personally seen them in action several times.  Well played BeatNavy.

Without Googling, I knew that Kings Point had a midshipmen band and wish they would quit trying to pretend they were British.  I did have to Google about the Coast Guard band, however. I knew they were stationed at New London, the same base as the Academy, but did not know if their mission included support for the Academy or not. Good job BeatNavy!

You mentioned the inauguration parade. During Bush the 2nd's first inauguration, he saw the Kings Point Band and exclaimed, "here comes the Marines"! At that point in time, he did not even know we had a Merchant Marine Academy!

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