Spc. Victor Autrey, Spc. Anthony Hendrich, Spc. David Thompson and Spc. Robert Slade, four School of Music students, listen to instructions on how to enter a building from one of the NCOs participating in the FTX at Fort Eustis. The Soldiers completed the FTX before graduating from AIT. (Photo by Alia Naffouj)By Alia Naffouj/TRADOC Public Affairs
FORT MONROE, Va. (TRADOC News Service, 12 December, 2007) -- Two trombone players, a percussionist and a bassoonist dropped to the ground as gunfire filled the air. Spc. Anthony Hendrich, Spc. Robert Slade, Spc. David Thompson and Spc. Victor Autrey waited for the gunfire to subside so they could proceed. As their M-16s hung by their sides, the four Soldiers kept a watchful eye for the next attack.
Hendrich, Slade, Thompson and Autrey are recent graduates from the School of Music in Norfolk, Va., a multiservice advanced individual training school.
They are also typical of the caliber of musician the Army boasts.
For instance, Slade was previously a free-lance musician and financial adviser for three years before deciding to pursue music more seriously. After a slot opened in the Fort McPherson, Ga., band, where several friends were, Slade wanted to join the Army and become part of the Fort McPherson Band. “It’s tough free-lancing, and the Army gives me a way to do what I love,” Slade said.
Thompson originally wanted to be part of an Army band when he joined the Army, but a slot was unavailable. He did well on his field audition, but his unit would not release him right away. Eventually he was able to report to AIT for his new career as a musician.
Autrey attended Auburn University, where he was short of finishing his bachelor of arts degree in music education. Still, he wanted to continue in music and saw the Army as the way to do it.
“The Army music program is probably better than I expected,” Autrey said. “We get so much time to just take care of our own musical abilities. It wasn’t like that in college. There wasn’t a huge focus on how we each individually played; it was more about what the ensembles were doing. Here in the Army band program, it’s more or less what can you do. Every single musician has an audition that really tells you where you’re at in relation to another player.”
Hendrich’s journey to the Army band program was also by way of college courses. When he tired of farming in Kansas, he looked for outlets to pursue his love of music, since there was nowhere to do so in his small town after high school. He attended college for a little bit, then auditioned for the Army band and was accepted into the program.
These four Soldiers are learning to mesh their music with their new roles as Soldiers.
One of their learning experiences was to graduate from their rite of passage, the SOM – a school every band Soldier must attend for six months to be awarded the band military occupational specialty, 42R.
The Soldiers first had to audition for the Army band program, and then, just like any other Soldier, they went to basic combat training.
“The mission of an Army band is to provide music throughout the spectrum of military operations,” said Sgt. Maj. David Doyon, the TRADOC enlisted bandleader. “This is to instill in our forces the will to fight and win, foster the support of our citizens, and promote our national interests at home and abroad.”
During their six months at SOM, Soldiers must participate in physical training five days a week, plus two classes a week of warrior training, to include one Saturday class.
Warrior training, as all Soldiers know, is where they learn communications; urban operations; land navigation; basic tactical training; landmine defense; nuclear, biological and chemical, or NBC; escalation of force; checkpoint entry operations; first-aid training; road march/convoy operations; and combatives.
Once they arrive at the SOM, they are required to carry their weapons for the first two weeks as well as the two weeks prior to their involvement in a field training exercise.
As part of their Soldier-oriented training, SOM students must complete a five-day FTX before graduating.
They participate in the FTX in conjunction with U.S. Army Aviation Logistics School Soldiers at Fort Eustis, Va.
This gives them the opportunity to put their in-class training to the test in things like weapons qualification, urban operations, road march/convoy operations and landmine defense.
“We may be musicians, but we are Soldiers first, so we need to be efficient in tactical stuff,” said Doyon regarding the mandatory FTX SOM students attend before graduating. “It helps them hone their Soldier skills.”
The number of SOM Soldiers who participate in the FTX can vary from four to 20. Hendrich, Slade, Thompson and Autrey were incorporated into the large USAALS group, but they felt they were very well prepared.
“The Saturday classes and the two-times-a-week warrior training more than prepared us for the FTX,” Slade explained. “We already knew how to do most of this stuff.”
The TRADOC band usually performs one night during the FTX for both band AIT and other AIT students. Besides giving them a break in training, the performance also gives the band AIT students the opportunity to see “what right looks like,” according to Doyon.
Throughout their band career, Soldiers are deployed to many areas.
“In combat situations, the band performs music to inspire the troops to achieve the national security objectives as set forth by the president and Congress,” said Doyon.
Performing in a combat situation requires band members to have an M-16 slung over their backs while they play every type of music possible to entertain a wide variety of troops.
“As any combat service support unit, the band must provide personnel for security detail,” explained Master Sgt. George Barrett, a former first sergeant of the SOM’s Army Student Company. “While in Iraq, the band ran their own convoys as well as augmented with the infantry or whoever else wanted the band’s security.”
The band does not just play music to inspire the troops but joins in the fight against the nation’s wars.
Newly added to this group of performers and fighters are Autrey, who has gone to join the 282nd Army Victory Band at Fort Jackson, S.C.; Thompson, who’s joined the U.S. Infantry Center Band at Fort Benning, Ga.; Slade, who joined the Army Ground Forces Band at Fort McPherson, Ga.; and Hendricks, the only one going north, joining the 10th Mountain Division Band at Fort Drum, N.Y.
"I see my role of Soldier/musician in the category, with many other MOSs, of combat support services: adding to troops’ morale," Thompson said. "I feel like the Soldiers who take care of mail, legal services and food service, to name a few. I realize that I am not a part of combat, but others would definitely miss me if I wasn’t here doing this job. Even in that role, we are Soldiers first and should be trained and prepared to do whatever it takes to complete the mission.”