Our Navy Band flew from Guam to Ulithi Atoll in spring of 1978; the occasion was the Outer Islands High School graduation. The admiral, his wife, and the other VIPs all hung out in the Peace Corp building

High School showband gig in North Carolina, complete with reverberating gymnasium from hell. I woke up late, had no shower; can't remember exactly how I got to the gig but evidently I made it into the

I think this was somewhere in North Carolina; the echo in the gymnasium was so bad that you probably can still hear the concert. Here's the skit: Kevin goes out in the audience to woo some chick but meanwhile

One day, we woke up, drove to the airport, hung out, maybe got lucky and scarfed some coffee and stale donuts in the crew lounge, got on a plane and flew to Yap, way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere,

Being a musician and playing music has taken me all over the world. This photo was taken when I was playing in the US Navy Band, and I think this is on our way to or from Yap, a Pacific Island known for

On one of our Caribbean tours with the Navy Band, we played at a police station in St. Croix. It was hot, dry; all there was to drink was that thick syrupy sweet red soda, so I passed on that, in fact,

My "hurry up and wait" routine on these Navy Band gigs sometimes involved seeking out willing photography subjects, which typically was an easy task. I've played music in many countries, and

Navy Band UNITAS members aboard the USS Radford

I liked the flight suits we got to wear during our tour to South America and the Caribbean with the Navy Band. This is during our UNITAS tour onboard the USS Radford, although we were flying in planes

A long time ago, we played in Venezuela; I visited there during three different cruises with the Navy Band, and typically, we worked our butt off. I remember one day when we played four different gigs,

In 1978, I traveled to Ulithi as a member of the US ComNavMarianas Band, a.k.a. "Navy Band Guam". The occasion was the annual graduation of students at the Outer Banks High School, as I recall

Schoolkids with body-language hanging out, watching us set up for a Navy Band concert with La Banda Unitas in St. Kitts.

More enforced "Dixieland" aboard the ship. Scratch is peeking out from his tuba; since Frank on his clarinet was standing right next to me, I couldn't get a better angle, but it's still a cool

More Dixieland on the Beagle, with my good friend Doug and "Satch", with whom I also served in Guam. Doug had been my roomate previously at the Navy School of Music some years before -- perhaps

Frank and John jamming during the impromptu "Dixieland" concert aboard the USS Spiegel Beagle on one of our CaribbeanOps cruises. My recollection is that some officer, out of the blue, put out

Our drummer, Scott, warms up for an early crowd of schoolkids who were gathering for our concert.

Here's our trumpet section, during the St. Kitts concert I wrote of several posts back. Great concert, great people, lots of fun. Phil on the bass keeps it all together. I miss these guys.

The Navy Band Guam visited Ulithi in 1978; the occasion for our visit was the Outer Islands High School graduation. I was impressed by how friendly everyone was.

When I was in the Navy Band, we visited the bank.

Members of US Navy Band Unitas hurried to wake up, drive to the airport, fly to their next destination, load all of the band equipment onto some trucks, drive to the gig, and set up all of the equipment.