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A very sad day for the Cadets... From The Cadets FB page: It is with deep sadness that The Cadets announce the passing of Hugh Mahon. Hughs legacy is deeply rooted in the Drum Corps activity. Hugh started his drum corps career in the late 1950’s as a Drum Major for four different drum corps: Paterson Cadets (57-58), Skyliners (59), Garfield Cadets (60-61) and later the Hawthorne Caballeros (62-63). He returned to the Cadets as a drill instructor in 1968. Two years later he became Director of the Corps for a three-year period (1969-1972), pushing the concept of “total theme shows” and the formation of the United Organization of Junior Corps (UOJC), which he sought to assist eastern corps in regaining national prominence. Wanting more for the drum corps activity, Hugh contacted members of the Midwest Combine (which was the Midwest organization similar in scope to the UOJC) to work toward a common goal. Elected as DCI’s first co-director and serving as the DCI Eastern Coordinator, Hugh later became a charter member of both the Cadets Hall of Fame (1984) and the DCI Hall of Fame (1985), recognized for initiating a new era of drum corps. He was also one of the organizers for the Bluegrass National Championships of Lexington, KY during the early days of DCI.

Hughie was director of the corps all three years I marched. He was a great guy and wonderful director, never content with standing still. He was key in developing the themed shows we had in 71 and 72. In the fall of 1975, when I was writing the band show and working at Lenape Valley HS in Stanhope NJ, Hugh came out to teach marching and work visual, as well as with the guard. It was a very young program, as the school was only open a few years t that time. The kids loved him.

Who knows? You look at the word used in the video and you say, that says zoom. Then you look how the letters are spaced out and you say what the helll is zooiti? Probably just a BAC curve ball to generate speculation or a new way of writing zoom.

Yeah 6 was about the limit. For a gag one show that year for retreat Westshoremen contras wore tshirts. 3 of them had “3 + John = 12” and last shirt said “I’m John”. Crus contras came over and had a good laugh. Yeah off topic but who couldn’t use a laugh...

Oh it will be scored. Not by DCI maybe...

12? Wasn't the average Contra line back then around 6?

Can.... can 62 out of the 162 be contras?

It only matters what we think. Also, I would like to have my groups music performance assessment be a part of my evaluation. This year though.....I and my groups will not participate.

I never played in the USAF Drum and Bugle Corps, but I did play soprano horn in the Lackland AFB, Drum and Bugle Corps October, November, and part of December 1963. We played retreat ceremonies and did some local parades. In addition we played at the basic training graduation ceremonies. Most of our music was traditional military marches, but one of our snare drummers, ex Cambridge Caballero DM, John Tyree, got the drum line to use the Hawthorne Cabbies street beat. We had a semi-cool instructor, SSGT Lykens who let us smoke and drink sodas when we were in the band room rehearsing. We were required to get set back three weeks in basic training in order to march in the corps. It was fun, and it was a helluva way to go through basic. Was anyone else in the Lackland corps? I remember we had a Chicago Cavy french horn player and another horn player from the Belleville Black Knights...I believe his name was Mike Hartwell. Most of the other members played brass in bands. We used chrome g bugles with a piston and a ring slide.

Couple of other USAF players through the years: John Simpson (Sky), Johnny Grass (Sky), Joey Arioso (Sky), Al Ruaute (Hurcs), Paul Mayer (Hurcs), Bob Morvak (Hurcs) ... not sure if Bobby Gaff (Yankee Rebels) was there in 66-67 along with grass ... many other quality players ... :-)