Air Force band entertains across Texas

  • Published
  • By Julie Briden-Garcia
  • 301st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
NAVAL AIR STATION FORT WORTH JOINT RESERVE BASE, Texas --  The Air Force Band’s Airmen of Note performed at Texas Christian University’s Ed Landreth Auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas, April 19 to a sold-out crowd.

During the free concert, the 18-member premier jazz band performed numerous musical pieces from greats such as the Glenn Miller Band and John Phillip Sousa as well as original scores, before 1,200 concert goers.

Concert attendee Col. Julio Lopez, 10th Air Force’s director of strategic plans and programs, celebrated his 9-year-old daughter’s birthday at the event.

“She was so impressed when the singer came on stage in her uniform … her jaw dropped when she began to sing,” he said. “It’s really neat to listen to the band play, they are truly masters. And besides, Glenn Miller’s music never grows old.”

After playing in Cowtown, the band traveled to the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas and played to a crowd of more than a thousand.

“The music was great but it was the audience that made it special,” said Maj. Gen. Richard Scobee, 10th Air Force commander who addressed the Dallas audience, which included World War II veterans. “The people were reminiscing about songs they heard, but it was the young people who were hearing this music for the first time who made this phenomenal.”

It wasn’t just about a concert, Scobee saw the band’s performance as another facet of the Air Force.

“Air Force Bands are such a great recruiting tool,” said Scobee. “It’s performances such as these that expose the community to another side of the Air Force. Tonight’s program showed everyone how much we value our veterans from the WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam and beyond.”

The band spent the first part of its nine-day spring tour in North Texas. Airmen played during the Fox 4 Good Day show in Dallas and visited W.E. Boswell High School in Fort Worth, and performed at the University of North Texas’ The Syndicate.

Capt. Haley Armstrong, Airmen of Note’s officer-in-charge, enjoys the band tours that showcase these talented musicians.

“This current tour is perfect,” said Armstrong. “Throughout Texas and Louisiana we will have three types of events: free concerts that serve to honor our veterans and thank communities for their support; educational clinics that help inspire youth to serve and give them a personal experience with the military; and media events that give us a chance to showcase the Air Force to a huge range of people from all over the region.”

But, it’s really the tour’s community interaction that makes the Air Force Band so popular, Armstrong said.

“Less than one percent of Americans serve in the armed forces,” she said. “When we go into their communities using the universal language of music and represent the excellence of our service members it brings the military to them in a real, tangible way. It reminds them of those who have served and often encourages the younger generation to serve above all else it strengthens our nations' patriotism.”

Airmen of Note will continue to Hewitt, Austin, Houston and Beaumont, Texas before traveling to Louisiana as part of its spring tour.