Army School of Music Soldiers bring entertainment to Fort Lee

FORT LEE, Va. (May 22, 2014) -- A history-making band event occurred here May 15 when Soldiers from the U.S. Army School of Music, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, arrived as part of a field training exercise and performed mini-concerts across the post.

After an early morning flight aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, and a bit of field training to warm themselves up for the day ahead, the military musicians dispersed to three locations here -- the child development centers (brass quintet and woodwind choir), the Post Exchange (brass choir and Dixie band), and Training Area 27 (rock band and Latin combo) where they performed for Quartermaster troops who were wrapping up a three-day field exercise.

"It's a deployment simulation that we're trying for the first time," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Lawrence, the ASOM FTX coordinator, during the TA-27 concert. "The goal is to expand the experience level of our students before we send them out to their first duty assignments across the Army."

Lawrence noted that his organization was part of the Navy School of Music until a "deconsolidation" three years ago made them an independent entity under the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command umbrella. That move required changes to the curriculum including the military occupational specialty-specific field training that TRADOC expects from all of its advanced individual training schools.

"We asked ourselves, 'OK, what do Army bands do out there?'" Lawrence said. "We also looked at some lessons learned (from the past 10 years of deployments) and began putting together scenarios that addressed our vision of how Soldiers should be trained up before they're handed off to the Army."

That analysis resulted in a four-day "monster of a training event" in Lawrence's words. The Soldiers completed warrior tasks and battle drills, Army culture training, deployment rehearsals and so on. On day three, they boarded helicopters bound for Fort Lee and had yet to be told that they would be performing mini-concerts as part of the exercise.

"(Army bandsmen) need to be ready to perform at a moment's notice," Lawrence remarked. "It's one of those things that Army musicians do, and it's really important."

The four-day exercise concluded with a 10-kilometer road-march, immediately followed by a "rite of passage" ceremony where the soon-to-graduate bandsmen received the unit patches for their first assignment.

"That's the icing on the cake," Lawrence said. "They'll be walking a little prouder from that moment on."

Spc. Jessica Chicvara, one of the student musicians who performed at TA-27, gave the training exercise high marks. She also added to the historic significance of the event, being the first ASOM AIT student to graduate with an additional vocalist skill identifier (42R9V).

"This is exactly the type of thing we would be expected to do in a deployed environment," said the former Army Air Traffic Controller who has already been deployed to Afghanistan. "Of course, we are Soldiers first and are expected to know our warrior tasks and battle drills, and have to be physically capable of overcoming the challenges of a combat situation. We just do all that and happen to play music too."

"What we did here (Fort Lee training area) is significant because it closely resembles the types of performances we would do downrange," she added. "We're giving Soldiers a chance to get away (from the stresses of deployment) for a short while. We're taking them on a mini vacation. How can you not feel great after seeing the smiles on their faces and knowing you gave them a great show?"

The recipients of the melodious moment appreciated it as well.

"What a great way to wrap up our Quartermaster FTX week," said Capt. Jason Coffey, commander of Juliet Company, 262nd QM Battalion. "My Soldiers worked very hard over the previous three days, and it was a welcome reward for their efforts. It also exposed them to another part of the Army they might not have known existed, and provided a great training opportunity to the military band members as well. I extend my thanks to the cadre of the school of music for bringing their Soldiers out to perform for us, and to the performers for their enthusiasm and putting on a great show."