First Marine Corps Music
The history of American military music begins at the vortex of the fife and drum corps and the European military band with the establishment of the U. S. Marine Band in 1798. Fifes and drums are among the oldest forms of military music. The drum was used in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, and Greece. The Romans introduced the drum into Western Europe and Britain, and the English carried it during the Crusades. The drum, being a loud instrument, was used to beat calls for military formations, to signal commands, and to "beat the charge." Its rhythmic beat was also admirably adapted for regulating the movements of soldiers on the line of the march.

The fife was formerly called the Swiss flute. This name was given to it after the battle of Marignano in the year 1515, on which occasion the fife was first employed in war by the Swiss troops. The fife was introduced into England as early as 1557, but was first used together with the drum for martial music by the British guards, on order of the Duke of Cumberland, in 1747, and later adopted by other English regiments of infantry. It was from association with the British troops on duty in America that our colonial militia learned the art of drumming and fifing. Drums and fifes were the only musical instruments used by our military forces during, and for many years after, the Revolutionary War.

The first drummers and fifers in the United States Marine Corps were enlisted as members of the First and Second Battalions of American Marines authorized by Congress on November 10, 1775. On their drum was painted a rattlesnake, and under it, the inscription, "Don't tread on me." The records show that two drummers and one fifer were generally part of each ship's Marine Guard in our early Navy.

On July 11, 1798, President John Quincy Adams approved a bill that authorized the Marine Corps to enlist a drum major, one fife major, and 32 drummers and fifers. These musicians were used to form the famous United States Marine Band, the oldest organization of its kind in the country. On August 21, 1800, the Marine Band presented its first public concert in Washington "on a hill overlooking the Potomac" (the future site of the Naval Hospital). Then on March 4, 1801, the Marine Band performed for Thomas Jefferson's inauguration, and has played at every Presidential inauguration since. It was Jefferson that gave the Marine Band the title "The President's Own."

For the next century following the Revolutionary War, drummers and fifers played their part in making Marine Corps history. They served with distinction at Tripoli, in the War of 1812, and in the storming of Chapultepec. In the Civil War, the stirring music of the fife and drum probably arose to its greatest heights, as many memorable tunes were written during those four long years of war.

About 1875, the Army discontinued the use of the fife and adopted the bugle. This was due to the influence of the Franco-Prussian War, which changed the formations of troops in the field from closed to extended lines. As it was difficult to control such organizations by voice, the bugle was adapted and used to signal commands. In 1881, the Marine Corps also did away with the fife and adopted the bugle in its place. The grizzled old fifers who tried to continue to use their fifes fought this change. A music school was established at the Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C., for their instruction, but they still protested, claiming they had enlisted as fifers, not as buglers. Finally, commander directed that no fifer would be permitted to reenlist without a written agreement that he would learn to blow a bugle.

In former years, the captain of each naval vessel prescribed the calls blown on his ship and these Marine drummers and fifers were required to know these pieces. For instance, Annie Laurie might be played for Morning Colors, and Auld Lang Syne for Retreat. It was not until 1892 that the Navy issued instructions making all bugle calls uniform and standard.

The use of military bands and military music is coeval with that of the development of organized armies in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The mercenary troops of the Austrians, and the French, maintained large bands of trumpets and kettledrums and when they met in the battles of Marignano (1515) and Pavia (1525), the clash of the instruments was as strident and as fear-inspiring as the clash of armor and weapons.

The music of these groups was limited mainly to battle signals and to visual display such as was to be found, for example, in the extravagant and affected movement of the kettledrums that survive today with modern-day drum majors, and in the heraldic flourishes of the trumpeters who were organized into guilds and endowed with many privileges that distinguished them from civilian musicians of the day.

It was not until the advent of the eighteenth century that the introduction of melody instruments, such as oboe, bassoon, French horn, and clarinet led to a broader repertory of military music. The growth and popularity of wind bands, both military and civilian, continued from the early sixteenth century and eventually spread all over Europe.

Although the Germans were the pioneers of military music, the French and English were avid supporters and followers. By 1750, European military bands included oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, and drums. Further, their musical quality was good and improving. The addition of piccolos, bass drums, and cymbals occurred around 1800, marking an important step toward the instrumentation of the modern military band.

From the late seventeenth century, bands were attached to infantry regiments. Majorities of the British Guards Regiments continue that tradition to this day. Napoleon maintained regimental bands consisting of one piccolo, one high clarinet, sixteen clarinets, four bassoons, two serpents (an early version of the tuba), two trumpets, one bass trumpet, four horns, three trombones, two snare drums, one bass drum, one triangle, and two pairs of cymbals.

A performance given in Berlin in 1838 in honor of the Russian Emperor, in which a combined band of sixteen infantry and sixteen cavalry regiments, was assembled and in which over twelve hundred musicians participated, was a landmark in the development of military bands and music.

The bass tuba made its appearance in the military band at this time and composition of instruments for the military band was completed in 1850 with the addition of the saxophone. The beginning of military music in America occurred during the revolutionary period and mainly consisted of fife and drum playing.

Although Congress authorized the Army to form brigade bands in 1792, this was not affected until 1812. The first Marine Band, organized in 1798, consisted of a drum major, a fife major, and thirty-two drummers and fifers. When this unit moved to Washington, D. C. with the Federal government in 1800, it consisted of at least two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, a bassoon, and a snare drum. Since that time, bands have appeared in all branches of the American military with each service supporting a premiere band in Washington, D.C.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President - would have been 201 years old on 12 Feb. 2010

Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it."

Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy but four remained within the Union. The Civil War had begun.

The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln had to struggle for a living and for learning. Five months before receiving his party's nomination for President, he sketched his life:

"I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all."

Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to attain knowledge while working on a farm, splitting rails for fences, and keeping store at New Salem, Illinois. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, and rode the circuit of courts for many years. His law partner said of him, "His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest."

He married Mary Todd, and they had four boys, only one of whom lived to maturity. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860.

As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.

Lincoln never let the world forget that the Civil War involved an even larger issue. This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union military triumphs heralded an end to the war. In his planning for peace, the President was flexible and generous, encouraging Southerners to lay down their arms and join speedily in reunion.

The spirit that guided him was clearly that of his Second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C.: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds.... "

On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who somehow thought he was helping the South. The opposite was the result, for with Lincoln's death, the possibility of peace with magnanimity died.

Michael Strank,
United States
Marine Corps
Flag raising on Mount Suribachi - Iwo Jima

Michael Strank (Rusyn: Mykhal Strenk; Slovak: Michal Strenk) November 10, 1919 - March 1, 1945 was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He was photographed raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The leader of the group in the famous picture was Strank, who got the order to climb Mt. Suribachi to lay telephone wire. Accompanying him were Corporal Harlon Block, Pfc Ira Hayes and Pfc Franklin Sousley. About halfway up the mountain, they were joined by Pfc Rene Gagnon, who was carrying a larger flag to the summit to replace the smaller one which had been raised earlier in the day. Upon reaching the summit, Strank took the flag from Gagnon, and explained to Lieutenant Harold Schrier that "Colonel Johnson wants this big flag run up high so every son of a bitch on this whole cruddy island can see it." Strank, along with his aforementioned men and Navy Corpsman John Bradley who was already on the summit of Mt. Suribachi, raised the second flag.

Early life
Michael Strank was born in Jarabina, a small Rusyn-inhabited village in Czechoslovakia. He was the son of Vasil Strenk and Martha Grofikova, natives of the village. His father was also known as Charles Strank in the United States. Michael's father moved to Franklin Borough near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, found work in a steel mill and brought his family over when he had enough money to pay for the trip.

School and the Marine Corps
Strank attended the schools of Franklin Borough, Pennsylvania and graduated from high school in 1937. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, where he remained for 18 months, and then became a highway laborer for the state.

He enlisted in the regular Marine Crps for four years at Pittsburgh on October 6, 1939. He was assigned to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island where, after completing recruit training in December, Private Strank was transferred to Headquarters Company, Post Troops, at the same base. Transferred to Provisional Company W at Parris Island on January 17, 1941, Strank, now a Private First Class, sailed for Guantбnamo Bay, Cuba, arriving on the 23rd. Strank was assigned to Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Brigade on February 1, the 1st Marine Brigade was later redesignated the 1st Marine Division. On April 8, now assigned to Company K, he returned to the States and proceeded to MCRD Parris Island. In September, Strank moved with the division to New River, North Carolina. He was promoted to corporal on April 23, 1941, and was advanced to sergeant on January 26, 1942.

Combat service prior to the Battle of Iwo Jima
In early April 1942, he moved with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines to San Diego, California, and shipped out on April 12. On May 31, 1942, the Battalion landed on Uvea. In September, after a short time with the 22nd Marines, he was transferred to the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, also at Uvea. With the Raiders, he participated in the landing operations and occupation of Pavuvu Island in the Russell Islands from February 21, 1943 until March 18, and in the seizure and occupation of the Empress Augusta Bay during the Battle of Bougainville from November 1 until January 12, 1944. On February 14, he was returned to San Diego and was allowed to visit his family.

On return from leave, Sergeant Strank was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. After extensive training at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and in Hawaii, Strank was placed in command of a squad, and landed with them on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945 during the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was instructed by an officer to hoist a larger flag on top of Mount Suribachi so that it could be seen at great distance. While doing this, he and the other five men were photographed in mid-action. This photo was later titled Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, and has since become the most copied photograph in history.

By the end of March, three of the six men in the photograph had been killed in action, including Strank, never knowing the impact the photograph would have. Another of the six, John Bradley, had been wounded in action and sent out of the battle zone.

Death
After the fall of Mount Suribachi, he moved northward with his unit. Fighting was heavy, and both the Japanese and the American forces were taking heavy casualties. On March 1, his squad came under heavy fire, and took cover. While forming a plan of attack, he was killed by friendly artillery fire. No Japanese could have claimed credit for this kill; the shell that killed Sgt Strank was almost certainly fired offshore by an American ship. Cpl Harlon Block, who looked up to Strank as all of the squad did, took over command, but was also killed by Japanese mortar fire hours later. Mike Strank was buried in the 5th Marine Division Cemetery with the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church. On January 13, 1949, his remains were reinterred in Grave 7179, Section 12, Arlington National Cemetery. Michael Strank had two brothers, and one of them, Peter Strank, was serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Franklin in the North Pacific when a Japanese dive bomber attacked it.

Legacy
Sgt Mike Strank's squad idolized him, and many men since who served alongside him have stated he had a way of setting them at ease, making them feel that he could help them survive the war. Of the men photographed raising the flag on Iwo Jima, Strank was the oldest and most experienced in combat. In interviews conducted years later, many documented in the book Flags of Our Fathers written by James Bradley, he is described by men who served with him as "a Marine's Marine", a true warrior and leader, who led his men by example. He often told his men, "Follow me, and I'll try to bring you all safely home to your mothers". One former Marine who served with Strank stated, "He was the kind of Marine you read about, the kind they make movies about". Cpl Harlon Block idolized Strank, and followed his every instruction without question. L.B. Holly, who served in his squad and who was with him when he died, stated of Strank, "He was the best Marine I ever knew". Another said "He was the finest man I ever knew".

Citizenship
In 2008, Gunnery Sergeant Matt Blais, who was a Marine security guard in the American Embassy in Slovakia, discovered that Strank was not a natural-born U. S. citizen. He had become a U.S. citizen after his father's naturalization in 1935, but had never received official documentation. GySgt Blais petitioned the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on Strank's behalf and on July 29, 2008 Strank's youngest sister, Mary Pero, was presented with his certificate of citizenship in a ceremony at the Marine Corps War Memorial.

Operation Detachment
Iwo Jima

The 4th and 5th Marine Divisions invaded Iwo Jima 65 years ago on
15 February 1945

At the beginning of 1945 General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area, decided to try and capture the small volcanic island of Iwo Jima that at the time was being defended by 20,000 veterans of the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force. The Japanese, who had created a fortress on Mount Suribachi, faced an immense air and sea bombardment launched by the 5th Fleet under Admiral Raymond Spruance.

Iwo Jima means "Sulfur Island", an apt description of eight square miles of volcanic, treeless scrub. Dominated by 546-foot Mount Suribachi, the island became the site of one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. Its strategic importance lay in its location halfway between Japan and the airfields of the B-29 Super Fortresses located on the Mariana Islands. Capture of Iwo Jima by the Americans would provide an emergency landing field for crippled bombers returning from their bombing raids on Japan and an advance base for the shorter-ranged escort fighters.

The American's strategic timetable demanded that the island be secured in the early months of 1945. Continuous air and naval bombardment began 74 days before the scheduled invasion to prepare the way. Previous Island assaults had taught the Americans the hard lesson that the Japanese would fight to the last man to defend their positions. The massive bombardment was meant to smash the Japanese defensive

As the invasion unfolded on the morning of February 15, the plan seemed a success. Huddled in their landing craft, the Marines encountered only scattered fire as they approached the beach. This situation didn't last long. Unbeknownst to the invaders, the Japanese had dug a labyrinth of tunnels and caves throughout the island that had protected them from the aerial bombardment. As the assault troops scrambled up the volcanic beach, the Japanese opened up with everything they had. It was a blood bath with the Marines pinned down by withering fire.

The invasion plan called for the quick capture of the heights of Mt. Surabachi. Two days after the invasion, however, the Marines had advanced only 200 yards towards their goal. It was not until the 23rd that they were able to wrest the mountain's summit from the enemy and another three weeks before they secured the entire island. Nearly all the island's 21,000 defenders died in the battle while the Americans lost 6,821.

The United States Army Air Corps was now able to use the island to launch bombing attacks on Japan. The large number of Japanese buildings made of wood made it easy for the bombers to create firestorms. On 9 and 10 March 1945, a raid on Tokyo devastated the city. This was followed by attacks on Nagoya, Kobe, Oska and Yokohama. An estimated 260,000 were killed and 9.2 million left homeless.