usmcontra

Wow, I'm not sure where you live in Virgina that you're a day away from northern South Carolina AND 10 hours from New Jersey. From Washington, DC to Fort Mill, SC is 8 hours, and from Bristol, VA to Mount Holly, NJ is 8 hours. I wouldn't consider either of those unreasonable. I know more and more corps are having camps in different states. The Cavaliers have camps in GA and TX, but both of those are further than 8 hours from Chicago. Camps away from home require even more coordination than normal camps. I'm sure there has to be some return to make it worth it. Money has always been an issue for marching drum corps. It is even more so now. I would try to find a sponsor if you really want to march. If every corps had camps where they weren't located, that would be 49 extra camps apiece. Riiiiight.

Oh, I also forgot the drum and bugle corps made up of basic training recruits at Lackland Air Force Base. I know someone posted a clip of them a while back. The unique thing about the Marine Drum and Bugle corps is that it's its own military occupational specialty and not something Marines do on the side. A Marine can do his entire career with the Drum and Bugle Corps, though they do have Marines that come from other MOS's and transfer to other MOS's. I remember a Marine at Camp Pendleton asking, "so what's your MOS?" He didn't believe that Drum and Bugle Corps was it! "Oh, I see, you don't want to tell me. That's OK."

In my 12 1/2 years with the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, I flew on one commercial flight to Japan, military planes similar to commercial planes, a lear jet, and cargo planes both big and small. I rode on coach busses and school busses. I stayed at swanky hotels, crappy hotels, military barracks, college dorms, and even the new wing of a retirement home ("The nurses have asked that you please stop playing with the emergency call chains"). It did beat a gym floor.

While the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps is both a public affairs and a recruiting tool, I do not believe that their overall funding comes from either, unless they are actually filming a commercial, making a calendar, recording a CD, etc. Most of the trips that the D&B goes on are actually funded by the sponsor.

Ah, yes, I did, sorry. No disrespect intended. There's also the Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

The Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, made up of active duty Marines and not "sponsored" by the Marine Corps, is a dinosaur in the military world. I don't mean that in a negative way, but at one time all of the services had numerous drum and bugle corps. Colonel Crawford, well known for leading the Marine D&B for many years, started his career with the Air Force Drum and Bugle Corps at the age of 17. He left the Air Force when that unit was disbanded. The last of the "other" Marine drum and bugle corps were disbanded in the 80s. Money was a big factor. The only three drum and bugle corps remaining in the armed forces today are the Naval Academy Drum and Bugle Corps, the Air Force Academy Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps. Fully sponsoring a civilian corps would cost money. There was enough uproar over the sponsoring of stock cars, but I would dare to say that Nascar has a bigger fan base than drum corps, so there is more return for the dollar.

While it wasn't the entire half of the show, the end of the Cavaliers Spin Cycle show was the beginning backwards.

Please tell me you know that the Naval Academy produces Navy aaaaand Marine officers...

My old section leader in the Marines, Jim Drass, marched Cadets '83-'85. On the flip side, we had a contra player in Cavies that marched Star '90, and us in '91 and '93.

The Glassmen have been known to play with the Toledo Symphony. The Marine Drum and Bugle Corps was founded to augment the Marine Band and originally took their place in front of the band like you would see in military bands in Europe.

I think each corps should poll DCP users and see what they would like to hear on the field and go with that. That's practical, right? The same should be done whenver a uniform change is considered.

Phantom and that low brass playing "National Emblem March". It's already been mentioned, but Glassmen and their "Just A Gigilo". I don't remember what year it was, but at DCM they decided all of the corps were going to play "You'll Never Walk Alone" en masse.

The drum solo in '89 and '90 included free-floating drum heads that the guard briefly used as equipment, then held so that they could be played on.

In '91, it was decided that cymbal players would do guard work, so it's actually cymbal players dressed like the guard and both playing cymbals and doing some guard work. In '92, they were known as the "multi-option cymbal dudes"- they played cymbals, did guard work, played bass drum in the drum solo, and ran with the giant flags at the end of the show.

Pete Stacker is his name. http://petestacker.com/

The group is made up of kids in Air Force basic training, so the group rotates members in and out all the time. They perform for parades and ceremonies, but I doubt they have a drill show. The leader is an Air Force bandsman specifically chosen to come to Lackland AFB and work with the group. Seeing as how this is not their primary focus, I can understand why they wouldn't be all that and a bag of chips.

Ummm, yeah...

A la Madison '95, a lot of corps started playing and marching before their show really began this year. The trumpet solo in the beginning of the Cavaliers' show this year was actually getting the corps to the starting line. More corps are starting to take advantage of having 5 minutes to do as they please, and the backfield warmup is going by the wayside.

I can't remember the exact details, but it has to do with the corps losing a close contest when one of the songs they marched to was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." When they came off the field all upset, someone started singing it and the rest of the corps joined in, and it grew from there. The Cavaliers corps song, which doesn't really have a name other than the Corps Song, is set to the tune of the Coast Guard Song. What you hear the corps play is a medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and the Corps Song.

Not sure how long you've been around the activity, but there used to be regional circuits. The first part of the summer was devoted normally to staying within your region. Every once in a while a corps would visit another region for first tour (summer was divided into two tours and not the one long one today), but even then they would stay in that one region for first tour. BD competed with SCV all first tour, Cavies, Phantom, Star and Madison all competed together, Cadets and Crossmen used to compete together, etc. You'd have the championship for each region before the corps split up and went to DCI shows wherever. For example, a typical 1992 Drum Corps Midwest show might include Cavies, Madison, Blue Stars, Pioneer and the Railmen. I believe DCM was the last regional circuit left, and they were dissolved just a couple of years ago.

Don't let Colin Powell get ahold of those. He'll take them to the UN as evidence that BD has mobile chemical weapons labs.

The writing was actually in Aramaic, the language that Jesus would have spoken. This is where the term, "the writing on the wall" actually comes from. And yes, the sign was friggin' wierd. http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=6...bc-6c2126c09afb The crutch is a term having to do with the whole 4th dimension thing that Picasso dealt with. '91. Straaange. I'll also add Star's uniforms in '90 and '91, Star's show in general in '93, and Cavies' guard uniforms and equipment in '94.

In '91, it was decided that cymbal players would have to do guard work, too, and wear the guard uniform. In '92, the cymbal players also did guard work, played bass drum during the drum solo, and ran across the field at the end with those big flags. They became known as the "multi-option cymbal dudes." Dan Hough, drum major in '93, was one of them. FYI- the big flags at the end of the '92 show were flags of nations that have had civil wars, or revolutions.

Cavies traveled 15,000 miles this summer. They went out East, came back to the Midwest, went back east, through Texas, back to the Midwest, back to Texas, and across to California. I don't have numbers, but it seems to me that corps like BD and SCV are much better-off financially than the Cadets anyway. After taking shifts driving two trucks back to Chicago, though, I definitely feel bad for vehicle drivers once Finals is over. DCI should just get some C-5s to pile vehicles into to fly them back.

1996- Phantom was 4th in Quarters, almost 4 points behind BD.