Oldbuc Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 Thanks for your response Frank. You got the old mind thinking. I guess the V/N war can be blamed for the demise of Reilly in addition to a lot of more serious subjects. I I left Reilly in April of '66 to go into the army. Most of the guys my age who were with Ridley Park, Bracken. Vasella, Vagabonds & many others moved on to Reilly & Archie for the '65 season. We all never made it to the '66 season, after answering Uncle Sam's call. Many went to the Marine D&B but the majority just blended in with the rest of 19 & 20 year olds. The '66 seson, as you know, saw the Archie-Reilly merger. I never got to see them on the field but heard it was a bit of a debacle. And thank you for your service. Ron Cook Sp5 E-5 519th MI Btn 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 (edited) Thanks for your response Frank. You got the old mind thinking. I guess the V/N war can be blamed for the demise of Reilly in addition to a lot of more serious subjects. I I left Reilly in April of '66 to go into the army. Most of the guys my age who were with Ridley Park, Bracken. Vasella, Vagabonds & many others moved on to Reilly & Archie for the '65 season. We all never made it to the '66 season, after answering Uncle Sam's call. Many went to the Marine D&B but the majority just blended in with the rest of 19 & 20 year olds. The '66 seson, as you know, saw the Archie-Reilly merger. I never got to see them on the field but heard it was a bit of a debacle. And thank you for your service. Ron Cook Sp5 E-5 519th MI Btn I don't know Bobby - I've seen him at a million shows, mostly as a judge - and caught a lot of groups he's taught for, but never knew the Viet Nam connection. I always thought that Bobby was that "different drummer" when people said someone "marched to the beat of a different drummer" because he had his own sense of good and bad, right and wrong, and is not an easy person to dissuade when he has made up his mind. He frequently seemed to be contrarian with respect to other judges or instructors - didn't take the mainstream opinion, and I never saw him "come around" over the course of a season (i.e. buy the company line and begin to accept a group because everyone else had). Suddenly some of that makes sense to me. We used to have a saying "What are you gonna do? Send me to Viet Nam?" Maybe Bobby has a little of that ingrained. Interesting guy that just got a little more interesting to me with that additional information. You guys beat me over by 4 years or so - I was still over there when the cease fire went into effect. But I was never hard to reason with. : ) Right, guys? SSgt E-5 (USAF) 6924th SS (Da Nang) and 6990th (Okinawa) Edited December 1, 2014 by rayfallon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironlips Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 Jeez, a bunch of sergeants philosophizing,... and I thought that was the domain of officers. Most of the brass I met couldn't hold a candle to a decent 2nd soprano section leader. The difference between drum corps and the military was that the drum corps usually had adult supervision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 Jeez, a bunch of sergeants philosophizing,... and I thought that was the domain of officers. Most of the brass I met couldn't hold a candle to a decent 2nd soprano section leader. The difference between drum corps and the military was that the drum corps usually had adult supervision. One of my proudest military moments was receiving a "Letter of Reprimand" at Da Nang for "Inappropriate Use of an Official US Military Form" We had a suggestion contest to boost morale one month and I wrote an official suggestion that officers clean their own latrine (yes - they had their own latrine and yes, we airmen had to scrub it on the overnight - I was an E3 A1C at the time). I used as a business case my opinion that it would help enlisted morale while improving officers' "hand to eye coordination" which could be "extremely critical in combat". One of two letters of reprimand I received - I framed them both and hung them over my bed - in my International Orange dorm room at Kadena, Okinawa. The paint was so loud I couldn't sleep there - between the paint and my Wurlitzer Spinet Piano. Good times in a bad war - maybe there's a book in there - we could do a collection of stupid non-war stories? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironlips Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 (edited) We drum corps guys rarely made model soldiers. I may be the only person in US Army history to have ever sunk a tank. E-5 in the morning, E-3 by sundown. The map reading blunder might have been forgiven, but when they (sarcastically) suggested they would take the cost of "road service" out of my pay, I blurted out that, at $109 per month, I didn't think I'd be in the Army long enough. That did it. "Sergeant, consider yourself a PFC." A week or so of washing tanks in the motor pool wasn't so bad. It was kind of Zen, actually. Edited December 1, 2014 by ironlips 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldbuc Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 (edited) The drum corps guys were always the best marchers in basic training. I found an old snare drum with a sling while cleaning the orderly room at basic in Ft Gordon, GA. I told the 1st Sgt that I could play the snare (gotta remember that I've been a sop since I was 12 years old-piston,slide). Our training company was the only company marching to a single snare with me playing my rendition of Reilly's street beat! The company commander thought it was great! Edited December 1, 2014 by Oldbuc 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajlisko Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 I don't know Bobby - I've seen him at a million shows, mostly as a judge - and caught a lot of groups he's taught for, but never knew the Viet Nam connection. I always thought that Bobby was that "different drummer" when people said someone "marched to the beat of a different drummer" because he had his own sense of good and bad, right and wrong, and is not an easy person to dissuade when he has made up his mind. He frequently seemed to be contrarian with respect to other judges or instructors - didn't take the mainstream opinion, and I never saw him "come around" over the course of a season (i.e. buy the company line and begin to accept a group because everyone else had). Suddenly some of that makes sense to me. We used to have a saying "What are you gonna do? Send me to Viet Nam?" Maybe Bobby has a little of that ingrained. Interesting guy that just got a little more interesting to me with that additional information. You guys beat me over by 4 years or so - I was still over there when the cease fire went into effect. But I was never hard to reason with. : ) Right, guys? SSgt E-5 (USAF) 6924th SS (Da Nang) and 6990th (Okinawa) I competed against Bobby in the old I&E circuit we had in the NY Metro area in the 60's ... he hooked up with BS around 67 along with Jimmy O'Hara ... I don't recall who he was with prior to BS ... don't know when he left and went to Nam ... solid snare drummer ... well respected arranger/instructor ... pretty sure he taught a Jr corps in CT also (Classics, Surfers?) ... last I remember seeing him was when he taught Sky around 2004 or so ... ... and thanks to all who served ... whenever ... wherever ... Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurcwave Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 Andy Bob taught Classics in 78 & 79. Brought alot of his fellow NJ people in to help and get the Corps back up to where they were a few years before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsksun4 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 (edited) Lots of opinions on the Madison Scouts Macy's Parade thread and drum corps in that parade in general. They mention the Skyliners, Cabs, Cadets and All Star D&B Corps but most posting don't seem to know there were others back in the 60's. Wasn't there a Jersey drum corps guy during that time that booked corps to march in the parade? I seem to recall SAC, Sky (Playing Miserlou, was that Swan?), Cabs and we did 67 and 68. Edited December 2, 2014 by gsksun4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 My son Dan and daughter Tammy did the parade in '92 (and maybe 93 - I forget) with the All-Star corps. Take the "All-Star" title with a grain of salt - Cupcakes played in the group. I was asked to float above the parade once, like Snoopy, but I was too wide to fit down 5th Avenue so I had to pass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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