As an Army Band recruiter one of my responsibilities is to audition and inform musicians about the Army Bands. I have given dozens of auditions and enlisted many fine musicians into our program. This past week at our annual Army Bands Leadership Training I had a chance to speak to my first applicant who made it through basic training and arrived to the School of Music. A crowd of basic music course students were around our Army Bands recruiting booth and I was hoping that the trumpet player was there. As he emerged from the crowd of new soldiers I was proud to see that the civilian I gave an audition to in November 2008 with the long hair and dozens of questions was standing there in ACU’s with a fresh hair cut. I asked the big question, how has it been. He said it was great and told me about basic training using Army terms like team and leaders. I wished him the best and told him to email me to tell me more. The four other Army Bands Liaisons also spoke to the new musicians. I think we were the most popular group of people with the new soldiers because in most cases we were the first Army Musicians that they interacted with. I am very excited to be in this position of Army Band Liaison. When the job gets hard and you look down at the government cell and see 27 new voice mails and the inbox is maxed out from questions from applicants and recruiters, seeing that you have an effect on the future of the Army Bands makes me feel privileged to be in the position I am in. Life is good……..

SSG Derrick Reed, SSG Dan Engel, SFC Adrian Ramon, SSG Mark Lucero, SGT Ryan Westbrook. The Army Band Liaisons at the Army Band Leaders Training