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Yesterday I finished all of my paperwork required to join the Army 204th Reserve band. I would like to publicly thank all the Military bandsmen that have talked to me in the past few weeks. You were all very helpful in my choice to join the Army.

Thank you all again.

Hooah!

Just remember the three rules of basic training:

1. Do what you're told (no more, no less).
2. Do what you're told (no more, no less).
3. Do what you're told (no more, no less).

Stick to those rules and you'll be fine.

Best of luck!

Get your band to give you TDY and come to the 2011 US Army Band Tuba-Euph conference!!

The Army is very simple--treat it that way, do your best, and take advantage of everything you can (educational money, etc etc etc).

Congrats! I would go for it but being legally blind in my left eye kinda prevents it.

Do band members get to shoot guns and blow up stuff?

The Big Ben wrote:Do band members get to shoot guns and blow up stuff?

There should be a SOPMOD for tubas!

The Big Ben wrote:Do band members get to shoot guns and blow up stuff?

I don't know if they do now, but they used to. My Dad played trumpet in band in a unit of the National Guard 35th Infantry, and I have his rifle and carbine proficiency "medals."

My ex, and I were members of the 188th ND Army National Guard Band, I went back to the Navy Reserves to retire. She retired from the band, but for promotion and self satisfaction, she spent six weeks at a Combat Skills Course in Missouri during the summer. Night combat training, major PT, blow lots of sh**-up, Yep, she came back lean and mean, and still played a hell of a flute. M-60 qualified and everything. Yeah, you can blow stuff up if you want to go the extra mile.

Bubu, You must of signed a heck-of-a great contract for a reserve band to funding a new tuba for you. Although I don't know how the reserve commands old there inventories. Guard band commands carry the instruments on there inventories and are not for individual order. Congrats, if you got the gov't to fund a personal horn. Apparently the command doesn't own any capitol goods.

The Big Ben wrote:Do band members get to shoot guns and blow up stuff?

It's actually "mandatory." I say it like that as blowing stuff up seems to stop at basic for musicians. But we are required to qualify on M-16's. The qualifier on the above is that we are still deployable, and if you are out on patrol or what not you might "blow stuff up". Excepting that, most reservists only fire M16's.
In basic we fired M16's, M249's (like an auto 16), M203's (grenade launcher attached to a 16), the Browning .50 cal, fake AT-4's with 9mm rounds (the 2 soldiers with the best M-16 scores got to fire live ones!), .50 cal M240B's,... and threw a few live grenades. My favorite is the 249. 200 round drums, small arms "playability" and portability,...

tundratubist wrote:Bubu, You must of signed a heck-of-a great contract for a reserve band to funding a new tuba for you...Congrats, if you got the gov't to fund a personal horn.

I really don't know anything about the National Guard, but in the reserves it is not that hard to request a specific instrument. It is not exactly a personal instrument, as you should not use it for for-pay playing though college use, community bands,.... are all fine.

Bob Kolada wrote:

The Big Ben wrote:Do band members get to shoot guns and blow up stuff?

It's actually "mandatory." I say it like that as blowing stuff up seems to stop at basic for musicians. But we are required to qualify on M-16's. The qualifier on the above is that we are still deployable, and if you are out on patrol or what not you might "blow stuff up". Excepting that, most reservists only fire M16's.
In basic we fired M16's, M249's (like an auto 16), M203's (grenade launcher attached to a 16), the Browning .50 cal, fake AT-4's with 9mm rounds (the 2 soldiers with the best M-16 scores got to fire live ones!), .50 cal M240B's,... and threw a few live grenades. My favorite is the 249. 200 round drums, small arms "playability" and portability,...

tundratubist wrote:Bubu, You must of signed a heck-of-a great contract for a reserve band to funding a new tuba for you...Congrats, if you got the gov't to fund a personal horn.

I really don't know anything about the National Guard, but in the reserves it is not that hard to request a specific instrument. It is not exactly a personal instrument, as you should not use it for for-pay playing though college use, community bands,.... are all fine.

Yep Bob nailed everything. Bands can retire old horns to fund new horns (called the instrument recycling program or something like that). So they told me what ensembles I would be playing in and told be what the budget was and I got to pick.

My personnel plan is to do the reserve band till I finish my degree then go active duty. I'm really excited and can't wait to play with the band next month.

Thank you for your service!