A Salute to Reserve Component Military Band Members

A Salute to Reserve Component Military Band Members

Honoring “Dual-Capacity” Service Members

By NAfME Member Tina Beveridge

When most people think of military bands, they know there’s a “Navy” band or an “Army” band, and some people know about bands that perform in Washington, DC, like The President’s Own or the Jazz Ambassadors. According to the U.S. Army website, the United States Army is the largest single employer of musicians in the country, and between all the branches of the military there are more than 45 active duty (full-time) ensembles, including special bands like the Fife and Drum Corps, choruses, and jazz bands.

What most people are not aware of, though, is that there are also part-time (reserve component) military bands. While historically, all branches had reserve component bands, currently only the Army has part-time musical groups/bands, of which there are two types: Army Reserves (federal) and the National Guard (state). The Army currently supports 51 National Guard Army bands and 16 Army Reserve bands, who typically meet the equivalent of one weekend a month and two full-time weeks out of a calendar year, often with added days for performances—ceremonies, parades, concerts, and civic events.

Reserve component band servicemembers have to pass the same physical and musical standards as the active-duty bands, so many members are former active-duty band players. However, there are others who intentionally selected part time from the start. But all those people make up a diverse group of what the National Guard calls “citizen-soldiers”: Full time freelance musicians, public/private school music educators, college students, farmers/ranchers, electricians/plumbers, insurance agents, and instrument repair technicians, just to name a few. In other words, your state’s National Guard band isn’t just an Army band, they are your Army band. They are your neighbors. They help with forest fires, COVID response, and hurricane clean-up. And then they play the national anthem at your local minor-league baseball game.

I know all of this because I happen to be married to a National Guard Army Band commander, WO2 Tyson Sterne of the 440^th Band in North Carolina. He is, like many other bandsmen/women in the reserve component bands, also a full-time music educator. He has now served in three National Guard bands and one Reserve band, with many other full-time music educators—elementary teachers, choir teachers, and of course band teachers as well. The military has been a huge part of our combined professional and personal lives, as many of the people he has served with became our “chosen” extended family.

As we celebrate Veterans Day, I would like to salute all of the reserve component bandsmen/women for their service, but especially those who serve our country as full-time public school music educators.

Here are just a few of the many people who have served our country in this dual capacity:

CW3 Christopher W. Fossmo, 40^th Infantry Division Band CA ARNG
Band Director, Lake Elsinore, California

WO1 Kelsie McCallum, 101^st Army Band, Colorado Army National Guard
K–5 General Music Teacher, Colorado Springs, Colorado

CW2 William Scheidecker, 34^th Iowa Army National Guard Band
Junior High Band Instructor, North Liberty, Iowa

CW2 Keith Shasteen, 144^th Army Band, Illinois Army National Guard
Band Director, Sparta, Illinois

WO1 Catherine Maloney, 38th ID Band, Indiana Army National Guard
Middle School Band Director, Pendleton, Indiana

CW3 Casey Kirk, 41^st Army National Guard Band, Mississippi
Assistant Professor of Music, Belhaven University, Jackson, Mississippi

CW3 James Landman, 188^th North Dakota Army National Guard Band
High School Band Teacher, Fargo, North Dakota

CW2 Paul Kenney, 43^rd Army Band Nebraska National Guard
High School Band Director, Lincoln, Nebraska

CW2 Spencer Frohm, Utah National Guard 23rd Army Band
Junior High Band Director, Centerville, Utah

CW2 Tyson Sterne, 440th North Carolina Army National Guard Band
Orchestra Director, Ft. Belvoir, Virginia

CW2 Kevre L. Hendricks, 73^rd Virgin Islands Army National Guard Band
High School Band Director, St. Croix, Virgin Islands

WO1 Matthew Wenman, 133d Washington Army National Guard Band
Band and Orchestra Director, Spokane, Washington

About the author:

Tina Beveridge is the Director of Undergraduate Music Education and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

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