Navy Ambassadors

While we are on tour, we try to serve as ambassadors for the U.S.
Navy in the best ways we can—by playing great music and by
creating personal contacts. Yesterday, after the concert at the Warner
Theater in Torrington, Conn., it was a thrill to chat with Mr.
James Newton, a retired member of the Navy Band from the battleship
USS Missouri (BB-63) and a 1950 graduate from the U.S. Naval School of Music.



This evening we played a concert at Southington High School. The
sponsor was the Southington Kiwanis Club, the Southington High School
Band and Key Club. The Kiwanis Club graciously provided the band with
a light dinner before the concert. Mrs. Beth Hosmer, advisor for the
Southington High School Key Club, was on hand to welcome and chat with
the band.

Before our show began, I was able to talk with three young members of
the local Sea Cadets. Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Getler,
Seaman Trenton Roberts, and Seaman Apprentice Morgan Truax were eager
to talk about their future Navy and Marine Corps careers and to learn
what they could from the traditions of the U.S. Navy Band.

Perhaps most significantly, Lt. j.g. Scott Mythen led a
large contingent of Navy Band Northeast, from Newport, R.I., to
hear our concert in Southington and to lend their support and best
wishes for our tour.

We are truly blessed to meet these and many other supporters on our
concert tour, as we try to inspire patriotism and enhance awareness
about the U.S. Navy through our music.

Chief Musician Stanley Curtis plays trumpet in the Concert Band.


(Pictured: Chief Musician Mike Bayes discusses Navy Band history with Korean War veteran Jim Newton)