thedrifter
01-30-09, 08:14 AM
Two local Marines play for history as part of "The President's Own"
Marine Staff Sgt. Harry Ong of Seattle, 28, has carried his clarinet on a road to "The President's Own" that began with his family's humble beginnings in Indonesia.
Master Gunnery Sgt. John Troxel, 53, carried a French horn toward the same goal, but on a different path, growing up the son of a former Seattle Public Schools superintendent and an elementary school music teacher in Shoreline Public Schools.
On the strength of their character, education and skills, the two Seattle-area Marines, like nearly 100 men and women they serve with, won rigorous, competitive nationwide auditions. Like television's "American Idol," each of the nearly 100 band members won the final cut to earn a coveted position with the U.S. Marine Band.
But that's about as far as the television comparison goes.
The Marine Band is the nation's oldest active professional music organization and oldest continuous unit in the Marines, claimed as "The President's Own" by Thomas Jefferson, whose inauguration was the first in which the unit played on Mar. 4, 1801.
In the chilly air that numbed fingers and toes when President Barack Obama was sworn-in as the nation's 44th commander-in-chief on Jan. 20, Ong and Troxel took their places with the band's usual front-row seat to history, seated in dress-blue wool overcoats below the U.S. Capital podium from which Obama spoke.
To some, "we are these anonymous persons who make up the band for these historic events, but it doesn't escape us that we are witnessing history," Troxel said. "I sometimes have to pinch myself."
Obama's inauguration, with 1.5 million people present, "was stunning. I could see the President receiving the oath and giving his speech. It is an honor to be included inauguration after inauguration, a legacy that makes the Marine Band much more special than any other unit," Troxel said.
"I would not dare not want to be there. "
Obama's was Troxel's seventh inauguration, the second for Ong, who acknowledged a special significance.
His parents are Indonesian immigrants, a country where Obama and his sister once lived when they were in grade school, and where his grandparents survived occupation by Japan in World War II.
"I have no blood relatives who served in the military but if it wasn't for the sacrifices of American service men and women, who knows what would have happened to my grandparents when Indonesia was occupied in WW II?" Ong asked.
Obama's inauguration enhanced his appreciation.
"If you came up to me back when I was in Roosevelt High School in Seattle and told me I would be within a few yards of an African-American president one day, I would not have believed you," Ong said.
"Seeing these historical barriers broken was incredible to witness, something special that will stick with me for a long time," Ong said. "Regardless of who is in office, it's an honor for me to serve them in the Marine Band."
The band to which the two Seattle area men belong harkens back to President John Adams, who signed a Congressional act creating it on July 11, 1798. Jefferson made them "The President's Own" in 1801, and in 1805 bolstered the talent pool by looking to Europe, where 18 Italian musicians were recruited into the ranks.
While the band's main mission is to provide music for the president and for the commandant of the Marine Corps, it has also become the nation's "go to" band.
In addition to an unbroken string of 53 inaugurations, the band was present during Lincoln's Gettysburg address. Today, the band's nearly 150 members, which includes support staff, is busy throughout the year, broken into smaller units depending upon functions ranging from ceremonies to funerals, participating also as a Marine chamber orchestra or chamber ensemble, and with a musical outreach to communities and kids.
An annual fall tour will bring the band to Seattle late this year at a date to be determined by September.
On their personal journey with the band, Ong and Troxel can tick off personal crystal moments.
The Pope's visit to the U.S. last April; Gorbachev's visit, Arab-Israeli peacetalks; kids left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
Troxel's last mission for the Bush Administration was to play at an emotional Medal of Honor ceremony. He retains an image of a moment in the Clinton Administration when the president, actor Tom Hanks and John F. Kennedy Jr. walked into the East Room.
"It was the last time JFK Jr was in the White House, and I was there playing honors,' Troxel said.
Ong remembers elderly Marine veterans in a Wisconsin audience snapping to attention when the band took the stage.
"Usually people just sit," Ong said. "Later I talked with a few who stood. These were hard core Marines. I thought, 'whoa, we just played for some Korean War and Iwo Jima veterans.' That was a defining moment for me."
Another was President Reagan's funeral in 2004.
"President Reagan was the president during my first few years as a human being, the first one who I remember," Ong said. "I got a sense at his funeral about what the band was all about – being there for that moment in history, paying tribute to one of our leaders for our country, and for his family."
Like many members, the two participate in events in their hometowns when they get the chance to visit.
Troxel played with the Shoreline concert band and stays in touch with teachers and longtime musical chums, like Frank Halferty, a top area music educator, composer, conductor and Albert Einstein Middle School music department head.
In 2007, Ong played in Shoreline, in a recital at Seattle Pacific University and at a Memorial Day service in Seattle.
Ong is single. His dad, Kwan, is an auto body man with Aurora Collision. His mom, Maria, is a homemaker. He is close to his only sibling, Christie, a college senior.
Ong began playing clarinet at age 9 in Seattle from Thompson Elementary through Roosevelt High for three years, spending his senior year at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan from which he graduated. Ong earned a bachelor of music degree from the University of Michigan in 2003 and competed to win his spot with the Marine band.
Troxel is married with three children. His father, the late J. Loren Troxel, directed Seattle public schools. His mom, Maryon, 88, lives in Lynnwood. He is the fourth of five musically inclined children, and took up the French horn to emulate his late older brother, Larry, a Vietnam-era sailor who played with a Navy band.
Troxel also started playing at 9 years old through high school, graduating in 1973. Troxel earned two bachelors degrees in music from Western Washington University and a graduate degree from Indiana University. He played for free with three different groups while earning a paycheck as a teller with Seafirst Bank in Seattle. He was playing with the Alabama Symphony in Birmingham when he saw an ad for Marine band auditions in an international musicians trade magazine.
U.S. Marine Band members don't go to Marine boot camp to prepare for war, but they adhere to the same ethic. Their job is to excel as elite musicians, performing for the president and Marine commandant, and during national times of celebration or mourning.
"The minimum beginning expectation is that everybody is 100 percent reliable, always on time, prepared and working to the best of your ability," Troxel said. "You don't let anybody down. Your buddies know more than everybody else how reliable you are."
Candidates first compete in blind auditions for one or two slots, against scores of accomplished musicians from top conservatories, schools and major orchestras. They take a number, wait to be called, play from behind a curtain so that appearance is not a factor, and are expected to be prepared. Test tunes are randomly picked from a predistributed list they are expected to know.
"At my audition in 1984 there were 32 people for two horn openings," Troxel recalls. For one trumpet spot that year, 125 candidates showed up.
After they are deemed "musically qualified," backgrounds are investigated for national security clearances to enter the White House, while senior officers interview and assess their character and teamwork.
Winners are enlisted as staff sergeants. The band is the most educated unit in the Corps, most members holding masters degrees or doctorates.
Members must maintain a squared-away appearance, stay physically fit and on top of their skills. The reenlistment rate is very high; most make it a 20-year career. "How you do your work determines whether you are a good fit," Troxel said.
As a senior NCO, Troxel has been French horn section leader since 2001, responsible for scheduling, fitness reports, tracking commitments and regularly performing.
"There's no coasting because you are at a higher rank," he said. "We owe the unit, the Marine Corps, our best work and efforts. They don't owe me because I did well previously. I have to show I can still contribute, that I'm still pulling my weight and can be relied upon."
For Obama's inauguration, the band assembled with other military units at 4:30 a.m., heading to the capital around 6:45 a.m. They warmed themselves in the House of Representatives dining room before heading outside shortly before 10 a.m.
While the weather for Obama's inauguration was 7 degrees, Troxler has played in colder inaugurations.
President Reagan's second swearing-in in 1985, the first in which Troxel played, was so cold that the District of Columbia's metro trains froze in the tunnels, Troxel said.
"That was unusual, so cold – zero or minus zero – that all outdoor events …were cancelled by President Reagan. He didn't want people injured by hypothermia," Troxel said. Reagan instead took the oath in the White House, with a scaled down parade review at a sports arena.
Members today can use modern developments like handwarmers in their gloves, but Troxel retains a senior non-com's ethic.
"I don't use any of that. I am the oldest; if I can do it, they can do it," Troxel said. "I just wear as many layers as can loosely fit, three layers under my uniform, four under the overcoat."
The tradition carries on.
"Whether sitting for three hours or marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, we just get it done, no matter what," Ong said. "That sense of pride in what we do, day in and day out, is something I get a real kick out of, and my colleagues would agree."
Posted by Mike Barber at January 29, 2009 8:17 p.m.
Ellie
Marine Staff Sgt. Harry Ong of Seattle, 28, has carried his clarinet on a road to "The President's Own" that began with his family's humble beginnings in Indonesia.
Master Gunnery Sgt. John Troxel, 53, carried a French horn toward the same goal, but on a different path, growing up the son of a former Seattle Public Schools superintendent and an elementary school music teacher in Shoreline Public Schools.
On the strength of their character, education and skills, the two Seattle-area Marines, like nearly 100 men and women they serve with, won rigorous, competitive nationwide auditions. Like television's "American Idol," each of the nearly 100 band members won the final cut to earn a coveted position with the U.S. Marine Band.
But that's about as far as the television comparison goes.
The Marine Band is the nation's oldest active professional music organization and oldest continuous unit in the Marines, claimed as "The President's Own" by Thomas Jefferson, whose inauguration was the first in which the unit played on Mar. 4, 1801.
In the chilly air that numbed fingers and toes when President Barack Obama was sworn-in as the nation's 44th commander-in-chief on Jan. 20, Ong and Troxel took their places with the band's usual front-row seat to history, seated in dress-blue wool overcoats below the U.S. Capital podium from which Obama spoke.
To some, "we are these anonymous persons who make up the band for these historic events, but it doesn't escape us that we are witnessing history," Troxel said. "I sometimes have to pinch myself."
Obama's inauguration, with 1.5 million people present, "was stunning. I could see the President receiving the oath and giving his speech. It is an honor to be included inauguration after inauguration, a legacy that makes the Marine Band much more special than any other unit," Troxel said.
"I would not dare not want to be there. "
Obama's was Troxel's seventh inauguration, the second for Ong, who acknowledged a special significance.
His parents are Indonesian immigrants, a country where Obama and his sister once lived when they were in grade school, and where his grandparents survived occupation by Japan in World War II.
"I have no blood relatives who served in the military but if it wasn't for the sacrifices of American service men and women, who knows what would have happened to my grandparents when Indonesia was occupied in WW II?" Ong asked.
Obama's inauguration enhanced his appreciation.
"If you came up to me back when I was in Roosevelt High School in Seattle and told me I would be within a few yards of an African-American president one day, I would not have believed you," Ong said.
"Seeing these historical barriers broken was incredible to witness, something special that will stick with me for a long time," Ong said. "Regardless of who is in office, it's an honor for me to serve them in the Marine Band."
The band to which the two Seattle area men belong harkens back to President John Adams, who signed a Congressional act creating it on July 11, 1798. Jefferson made them "The President's Own" in 1801, and in 1805 bolstered the talent pool by looking to Europe, where 18 Italian musicians were recruited into the ranks.
While the band's main mission is to provide music for the president and for the commandant of the Marine Corps, it has also become the nation's "go to" band.
In addition to an unbroken string of 53 inaugurations, the band was present during Lincoln's Gettysburg address. Today, the band's nearly 150 members, which includes support staff, is busy throughout the year, broken into smaller units depending upon functions ranging from ceremonies to funerals, participating also as a Marine chamber orchestra or chamber ensemble, and with a musical outreach to communities and kids.
An annual fall tour will bring the band to Seattle late this year at a date to be determined by September.
On their personal journey with the band, Ong and Troxel can tick off personal crystal moments.
The Pope's visit to the U.S. last April; Gorbachev's visit, Arab-Israeli peacetalks; kids left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
Troxel's last mission for the Bush Administration was to play at an emotional Medal of Honor ceremony. He retains an image of a moment in the Clinton Administration when the president, actor Tom Hanks and John F. Kennedy Jr. walked into the East Room.
"It was the last time JFK Jr was in the White House, and I was there playing honors,' Troxel said.
Ong remembers elderly Marine veterans in a Wisconsin audience snapping to attention when the band took the stage.
"Usually people just sit," Ong said. "Later I talked with a few who stood. These were hard core Marines. I thought, 'whoa, we just played for some Korean War and Iwo Jima veterans.' That was a defining moment for me."
Another was President Reagan's funeral in 2004.
"President Reagan was the president during my first few years as a human being, the first one who I remember," Ong said. "I got a sense at his funeral about what the band was all about – being there for that moment in history, paying tribute to one of our leaders for our country, and for his family."
Like many members, the two participate in events in their hometowns when they get the chance to visit.
Troxel played with the Shoreline concert band and stays in touch with teachers and longtime musical chums, like Frank Halferty, a top area music educator, composer, conductor and Albert Einstein Middle School music department head.
In 2007, Ong played in Shoreline, in a recital at Seattle Pacific University and at a Memorial Day service in Seattle.
Ong is single. His dad, Kwan, is an auto body man with Aurora Collision. His mom, Maria, is a homemaker. He is close to his only sibling, Christie, a college senior.
Ong began playing clarinet at age 9 in Seattle from Thompson Elementary through Roosevelt High for three years, spending his senior year at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan from which he graduated. Ong earned a bachelor of music degree from the University of Michigan in 2003 and competed to win his spot with the Marine band.
Troxel is married with three children. His father, the late J. Loren Troxel, directed Seattle public schools. His mom, Maryon, 88, lives in Lynnwood. He is the fourth of five musically inclined children, and took up the French horn to emulate his late older brother, Larry, a Vietnam-era sailor who played with a Navy band.
Troxel also started playing at 9 years old through high school, graduating in 1973. Troxel earned two bachelors degrees in music from Western Washington University and a graduate degree from Indiana University. He played for free with three different groups while earning a paycheck as a teller with Seafirst Bank in Seattle. He was playing with the Alabama Symphony in Birmingham when he saw an ad for Marine band auditions in an international musicians trade magazine.
U.S. Marine Band members don't go to Marine boot camp to prepare for war, but they adhere to the same ethic. Their job is to excel as elite musicians, performing for the president and Marine commandant, and during national times of celebration or mourning.
"The minimum beginning expectation is that everybody is 100 percent reliable, always on time, prepared and working to the best of your ability," Troxel said. "You don't let anybody down. Your buddies know more than everybody else how reliable you are."
Candidates first compete in blind auditions for one or two slots, against scores of accomplished musicians from top conservatories, schools and major orchestras. They take a number, wait to be called, play from behind a curtain so that appearance is not a factor, and are expected to be prepared. Test tunes are randomly picked from a predistributed list they are expected to know.
"At my audition in 1984 there were 32 people for two horn openings," Troxel recalls. For one trumpet spot that year, 125 candidates showed up.
After they are deemed "musically qualified," backgrounds are investigated for national security clearances to enter the White House, while senior officers interview and assess their character and teamwork.
Winners are enlisted as staff sergeants. The band is the most educated unit in the Corps, most members holding masters degrees or doctorates.
Members must maintain a squared-away appearance, stay physically fit and on top of their skills. The reenlistment rate is very high; most make it a 20-year career. "How you do your work determines whether you are a good fit," Troxel said.
As a senior NCO, Troxel has been French horn section leader since 2001, responsible for scheduling, fitness reports, tracking commitments and regularly performing.
"There's no coasting because you are at a higher rank," he said. "We owe the unit, the Marine Corps, our best work and efforts. They don't owe me because I did well previously. I have to show I can still contribute, that I'm still pulling my weight and can be relied upon."
For Obama's inauguration, the band assembled with other military units at 4:30 a.m., heading to the capital around 6:45 a.m. They warmed themselves in the House of Representatives dining room before heading outside shortly before 10 a.m.
While the weather for Obama's inauguration was 7 degrees, Troxler has played in colder inaugurations.
President Reagan's second swearing-in in 1985, the first in which Troxel played, was so cold that the District of Columbia's metro trains froze in the tunnels, Troxel said.
"That was unusual, so cold – zero or minus zero – that all outdoor events …were cancelled by President Reagan. He didn't want people injured by hypothermia," Troxel said. Reagan instead took the oath in the White House, with a scaled down parade review at a sports arena.
Members today can use modern developments like handwarmers in their gloves, but Troxel retains a senior non-com's ethic.
"I don't use any of that. I am the oldest; if I can do it, they can do it," Troxel said. "I just wear as many layers as can loosely fit, three layers under my uniform, four under the overcoat."
The tradition carries on.
"Whether sitting for three hours or marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, we just get it done, no matter what," Ong said. "That sense of pride in what we do, day in and day out, is something I get a real kick out of, and my colleagues would agree."
Posted by Mike Barber at January 29, 2009 8:17 p.m.
Ellie