MTC Week #38 - From the Halls of Montezuma

The Choir had the honor of performing today with the “The President’s Own”
United States Marine Band, directed by Lieutenant Colonel Jason K. Fettig. As you can probably guess, our repertoire included several patriotic pieces--some of which we knew very well and others that we had to spend considerable time learning and memorizing. In fact, on that point, even many of those who have sung with the choir for years had to dust off their memorization skills for this performance. 

Lt. Col. Jason Fettig

One of the pieces was a collection of the theme songs for each branch of the United States military. Some of those lyrics are familiar to almost everyone, most notably the Air Force theme (c'mon now...here we go..."Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, climbing high into the sun.") Anyhow, I mention this collection in particular because it marks the first time since I joined the choir that everyone around me was scrambling a bit to remember all of the words. It was rather comforting!

Aside from the fact that I had all of the songs-to-be-memorized running through my head 24x7 for the past week (and I'm afraid it'll take several days to remove them from my mind's auto playlist), today's performance was a great tribute to our veterans and it was neat to hear this band play (they sounded near-perfect). As was mentioned on the broadcast: Every generation has the opportunity to be as great as the one that preceded it. We measure the value of a veteran’s service not by the length or the location of the conflict but by the heart and character of the soldiers. Every time brave soldiers respond to the call of duty, they have the opportunity to leave a legacy of honor for those who follow.

May that legacy of honor continue!

For me, amidst all of the great singing and performing, the thing that impacted me the most was when we sang "God Be With You" at the end as we normally do. This time though, I turned slightly and picked out one of the band members to focus on (I always like to single out an individual). Midway through the piece, he brought his hand up to wipe away some tears. While there are many in today's world who would like to separate God from this great nation, it cannot be done. And I think that band member (with many others hopefully) felt the Spirit in remembering that.

Until next time, God be with you.