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thedrifter
02-18-07, 10:06 AM
"Bring the thunder": Young Marines Drum and Bugle Corps making big bang in little lives

Sunday, February 18, 2007

By Erin Quinn
Tribune-Herald staff writer

It’s 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in a musty VFW Hall storage room, and Otis Berry is hurrying to remove mostly old or donated music instruments from their cases.

The kids — about 14 of them today, ages 8 through 16 — trickle in to greet their leader and pick up their instruments.

“This is from back when Moses was playing drums,” Berry plainly tells a wide-eyed little one who picks up an old, heavy snare and doesn’t get the joke.

The kids wear red Young Marines Drum and Bugle Corps T-shirts and loose-fitting camouflage pants and caps. Berry orders the little boy wearing “civvies” to do 10 push-ups once the group moves from the back room to the hall area, which is set up for some big event that has nothing to do with them.

From January to August each year, they meet like this once a week. On a good day, about 20 youths from all areas of Waco and beyond — Valley Mills to Cameron — practice ceremonial military formations to present at various patriotic parades, sporting events or benefit dinners.

Some are sent by their parents, who hope the early military influence will teach their children discipline and respect.

Others are fascinated with the camouflage, the marching and the drumming.

The youngest member of the group admits to wanting all the free candy the Young Marines pick up on the parade routes.

Berry, a native Wacoan who once served in the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps in Washington D.C., had a dream of 25 little bugle players when he started the band three years ago. Instead, they all turned to drums when they saw the pop culture flick, Drumline.

Only in the past week have a few youths appeared expressing an interest in the bugle. Now Berry’s objective is finding enough horns for them to play.

While the Young Marines sometimes drag from a mixture of a full day at school, after-school activities and homework, plus the effort it takes to hoist hefty drums, Berry won’t take anything less than 100 percent.

The 58-year-old former Marine who returned from Vietnam with no job skills except for the Bugle Corps has a warm smile and a dry wit.

Three years ago he decided to add the Drum and Bugle Corps to the Heart of Texas Young Marines. He worked to raise enough funds for instruments — most of which he bought from a pawn shop — and to attract children to the group.

“Kids have a real need to be a part of a group or an organization,” says Mike O’Bric, a Military Officers Association board member. “It makes them feel good. That’s an intrinsic value that I don’t think a lot us realize. Otis works with them on that support.

“The most important thing is Otis. He is a great guy, and deserves all the recognition he can get for what he does and staying with it.”

Berry, a grandfather of six, says he “pushes folders” as a claims assistant at the regional Veterans Administration office downtown.

He spent his years after Vietnam working odd jobs — everything from waiting tables at the Lake Waco Country Club for 90 cents an hour to lasting “3.5 days” working on the railroad.

An essay he’s written on those tumultuous years after combat is printed in a high school English textbook, he says.

He re-enlisted in the Marines two years after coming home from war. After starting out in a “grunt” unit, he became a bugle soloist, backing some of his jazz heroes over the years.

His talk of the legends — Doc Severinson, Maynard Ferguson — goes right over the children’s heads.

Berry talks of them anyway.

About 10 minutes after the instruments, mostly drums, are distributed and the chatter subsides, Berry hollers for the group to stand in their practiced block formation.

The drummers stand in three rows. Three cymbal players, including one who doubles on the triangle, stand behind the drummers.

“Stand by,” mutters Kenneth McMurtray, a lanky 14-year-old who attends A.J. Moore Academy.

Berry stands in front of the group, his voice booming.

“Give me the Clark Gable thing, OK?” Berry tells Kenneth, urging the youth to assume a more commanding air. Then Berry demonstrates in an almost Barry White tone, “Stand by.”

Kenneth lowers his chin to his chest, attempting to mimic. “Stand by.”

The group runs through the booming formation, interrupted several times by Berry.

“Practice like we perform. Perform like we practice,” Berry shouts in a drill-sergeant tone.

“Drum’s getting heavy, isn’t it?” he asks a little boy in the front. “You missed two parades last year, that’s why.”

Berry mimes out the military ceremony ahead of the group, while the drums roll.

“Post the colors,” he says, slowly. Dramatically.

The group’s confused.

“Post the colors,” he shouts pointedly.

Drums roll.

Berry continues.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag, bla bla bla. It’s over. Done. Said.”

Drums roll.

“Put a little pizazz in this thing,” he says, interrupting yet again. “A lot of these people are going to be talking about who died or who’s having heart trouble or whatever.”

A bugle corps junkie who says he still gets goose bumps thinking of the sound of the instruments and the crowd’s applause, Berry gets louder.

“I want you to wake them up, OK? I want you to bring the thunder.”

Berry’s tireless enthusiasm starts to show in the group. They’ve perked up since puttering in before.

Sixteen-year-old Arnold Mendoza, also an A.J. Moore student, says playing the big bass drum under Berry’s supervision has made him more excited about going to college.

Eleven-year-old Juan Rodriguez, who attends Bell’s Hill Elementary School, was sent to the Young Marines by his mother because he got in a fight with his brother. He’s since learned to like the group and his key role on the snares.

Some, like Kenneth McMurtray, have even recruited their younger siblings.

And Berry just waits for that occasional moment when he hears that booming unison of the instruments and it works.

All the time he volunteers, despite the challenges.

The frustration of coordinating the kids’ schedules and dealing with parents’ excuses for the youths’ absences.

The begging for funds for the group, the pleas for more members.

All for those moments when it finally clicks.

“Oh, man, it works,” Berry says, his fists clenched and pumping in the air.

equinn@wacotrib.com

757-5748

The Young Marines Drum and Bugle Corps will conduct a presentation of colors ceremony at 8 a.m. March 3 at the old Parkview Elementary School on North 15A Street. To join the corps, contact retired Marine MSgt. Henry Gonzales at 848-5204.

Ellie