USAF Band at The Smithsonian
Community
BIGHORN sent this to me and I just had to post it!
ENJOY!
They are a great band no doubt. There is one thing bothering me though. When I was in you couldn't become an E4 Sgt. in a four year hitch. And most of these people were supporting Master Sgt. strips and are E7s. Some are way to young to be E7s.. And I have never seen so may Chief Master Sgts.E9s in one spot. Must be some special rank advancement in that band!
Pat, had a friend that tried out for the Army band. If he had been accepted he would have started out as an E-5.
What I don't understand is how they were allowed to play the religious music. I am sure that it offended someone somewhere. (sarcasm)
Terry
That's what im talking about an E5 would be a staff sgt. in the AF and it takes 5 to 6 years to achieve this and because you play in a military band your just given this rank. Sorry NvaGvUp this kinda hit me wrong! People that don't earn what they get!
Pat to qualify for the military bands you have to be good. That means that at a minimum the troops have a bachelor of arts in performance. Most probably have masters and a few have PhD's. All this at their own expense. The guy that I knew that tried out for the Army band had a masters and was working on his PhD. His skill set was not good enough. So they may not have gone in the military as a buck private and worked their way up (schooling at govt expense) but they have paid their dues and they have earned what they get.
Another example of this is other skills like physician or veterinarian. Most of those start out as Captains or Majors. They did their time to get that rank just not in the military.
Terry
Ok Terry I see what your saying but most of the people that had degrees became officers. I knew alot of people that had a degree and they were not made master Sgts. And there is got to be a different pay scale because there is a little thing called time in grade. And it takes 20 pulse years to become a Chief Master Sgt. Just sayin!
Pat C.,
This thread is about the emotion and beauty of the video. It has nothing to do about the ranks of the band members.
Kyle like said earlier sorry this just sticks in my craw.
This is an awesome flash mob! I've lost track of how many times I've watched it. I just feel good afterwards.
Pat C., I retired as a MSgt (E-7) in 2006. It was fairly typical for Airmen to reach E-4 after 3 years - some sooner. They did away with Buck Sgt. around 1990. Now an E-4 is a Senior Airman. The first NCO rank is SSgt. and that typically takes about 4-5 years to attain.
In the video, I didn't see any of those TSgts who were younger than probably 29-30 - so they could have "earned" their stripes to use your phrase.
I also only saw 1 CMSgt. Remember, a Chief insignia is 3 stripes above the blue field and five below.
Thanks NVA for posting this.
shooter,
I'm an old USAF guy myself, dating back to the early 1970's when I flew for SAC. This video hit home in so many ways. I was proud and weeping and smiling all at the same time.
Ya Shooter I had to look up all the new ranks don't know what was wrong with the old strip system. It changed when I was in 76 to 91 You could make Sgt. in 4 then the change time in grade to 18 months for a senior airman. I didn't know they had changed all the rank insignias .
Shooter,
Thank you for your service! I too was in the AF back in the 60's. I thought about staying in but decided to take a different career field out of the military. Some of the guys that I served with and stayed in contact with made Chief and Senior Master Sargent. I am very proud to say that 3 of my close friends retired as Major Generals. Two of them are in their late 80's and have flown every fighter from the P-47s through the F-16s. I just found out in a Christmas newsletter from one of the guys that he use to fly over the Normandy invasion site in the 50's before they started the beach clean up.
When I saw the video, listened to the music and watched the expression on the face of citizens I just had to send it to my friend Kyle. Some of us are very proud of the fact that we served our country.
Enjoyed it. What a plus for those visiting the Smithsonian that day!
It was truly remarkable to see all the smiles caused not only by the performance of the Band, but also by the message of the music.
Great post!
