I am not sure about many of you, but for me, Memorial Day is period of bittersweet feelings. My heart is breaking for the families, loved ones and friends of our fallen heroes who have been coming home from the MidEast. But my heart is also full of pride for those same heroes and all of their fellow members of the forces who have volunteered to wear the uniforms and take on the responsibilities of protecting our freedom and our country while they and their families must live a life of doing without so many important things – mostly sharing time together. And, it is a time to again recognize all of those men and women who have worn the uniform in the past – and their loved ones.
I am so very blessed to be able to speak with so many special people on Stardust Radio as we do our weekly United We Roll World Tour Show - people who are serving in the military and people who are supporting our military members & families. No matter how many military members I speak with, I find the same traits in each of them over and over. These military members are the most un-selfish, most giving, most dedicated to mission and country, and most concerned about others than just about anyone else you can meet.
While I was thinking about this fact – as I often do – I also began thinking about the songs that each of the armed forces have and how those songs also reflect the attitude of dedication to mission and to country. I thought that this would be a really good time to look at each song verse by verse and the history of each song. So, that is what I have done here. This is my way of recognizing all of our military members from all of our branches of service on this Memorial Day.
May God Bless You All – Past & Present – And Your Families. You are ALL American Heroes!!!
History - Lieut. Charles A. Zimmermann, USN, a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, had been selected as the bandmaster of the Naval Academy Band in 1887 at the age of 26. His father, Charles Z. Zimmermann, had played in the band during the Civil War years. Early in his career, Lieut. Zimmermann started the practice of composing a march for each graduating class. By 1892, "Zimmy", as he was affectionately known by the midshipmen, became so popular that he was presented with a gold medal by that year's class. More gold medals followed as Zimmermann wrote a march for each succeeding class
In 1906, Lieut. Zimmerman was approached by Midshipman First Class Alfred Hart Miles with a request for a new march. As a member of the Class of 1907, Miles and his classmates "were eager to have a piece of music that would be inspiring, one with a swing to it so it could be used as a football marching song, and one that would live forever."
Supposedly, with the two men seated at the Naval Academy Chapel organ, Zimmermann composed the tune and Miles set the title and wrote to two first stanzas in November 1906. This march was played by the band and sung by the brigade at the 1906 Army-Navy football game later that month, and for the first time in several seasons, Navy won. This march, Anchors Aweigh, was subsequently dedicated to the Academy Class of 1907 and adopted as the official song of the U.S. Navy. The concluding stanza was written by Midshipman Royal Lovell, Class of 1926.
Anchors Aweigh – Lyrics
Original Lyrics by Lieut. Charles A. Zimmermann, USN
Stand Navy down the field, sails set to the sky.
We'll never change our course, so Army you steer shy-y-y-y.
Roll up the score, Navy, Anchors Aweigh.
Sail Navy down the field and sink the Army, sink the Army Grey.
Get underway, Navy, Decks cleared for the fray,
We'll hoist true Navy Blue So Army down your Grey-y-y-y.
Full speed ahead, Navy; Army heave to,
Furl Black and Grey and Gold and hoist the Navy,
hoist the Navy Blue
Blue of the Seven Seas; Gold of God's great sun
Let these our colors be Till all of time be done-n-n-ne,
By Severn shore we learn Navy's stern call:
Faith, courage, service true With honor over, honor over all.
Revised Lyricsby George D. Lottman(It is Verse 2 that is most widely sung)
[Verse 1]Stand, Navy, out to sea, Fight our battle cry;We'll never change our course, So vicious foe steer shy-y-y-y.Roll out the TNT, Anchors Aweigh. Sail on to victoryAnd sink their bones to Davy Jones, hooray!
[Verse 2]Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh.Farewell to college joys, we sail at break of day-ay-ay-ay.Through our last night on shore, drink to the foam,Until we meet once more. Here's wishing you a happy voyage home.
The History of The Marines' Hymn
Compliments of http://www.mclwestchester.org/USMC/Hymn_History.asp
Following the war with the Barbary Pirates in 1805, when Lieutenant P.N. O'Bannon and his small force of Marines participated in the capture of Derne and hoisted the American flag for the first time over a fortress of the Old World, the Colors of the Corps was inscribed with the words: "To the Shores of Tripoli." After the Marines had participated in the capture and occupation of Mexico City and the Castle of Chapultepec, otherwise known as the "Halls of Montezuma," the words on the Colors were changed to read: "From the Shores of Tripoli to the Halls of Montezuma."
Following the close of the Mexican War came the first verse of the Marines' Hymn, written, according to tradition, by a Marine on duty in Mexico. For the sake of euphony, the unknown author transposed the phrases in the motto on the Colors so that the first two lines of the Hymn would read: "From the Halls of Montezuma, To the Shores of Tripoli."
A serious attempt to trace the tune of the Marines' Hymn to its source is revealed in correspondence between Colonel A.S. McLemore, USMC, and Walter F. Smith, second leader of the Marine Band. Colonel McLemore wrote:"Major Richard Wallach, USMC, says that in 1878, when he was in Paris, France, the aria to which the Marines' Hymn is now sung was a very popular one." The name of the opera and a part of the chorus was secured from Major Wallach and forwarded to Mr. Smith, who replied: "Major Wallach is to be congratulated upon a wonderfully accurate musical memory, for the aria of the Marine Hymn is certainly to be found in the opera, 'Genevieve de Brabant'...The melody is not in the exact form of the Marine Hymn, but is undoubtedly the aria from which it was taken. I am informed, however, by one of the members of the band, who has a Spanish wife, that the aria was one familiar to her childhood and it may, therefore, be a Spanish folk song."
In a letter to Major Harold F. Wingman, USMC, dated 18 July [1919], John Philip Sousa wrote: "The melody of the 'Halls of Montezuma' is taken from Offenbach's comic opera, 'Genevieve de Brabant' and is sung by two gendarmes." Most people believe that the aria of the Marines' Hymn was, in fact, taken from "Genevieve de Brabant," an opera-bouffe (a farcical form of opera, generally termed musical comedy) composed by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), and presented at the Theatre de Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, on November 19, 1859.
Offenbach was born in Cologne, Germany, June 20, 1819 and died October 5, 1880. He studied music from an early age and in 1838 entered the Paris Conservatoire as a student. In 1834 he was admitted as a violoncellist to the Opera Comique and soon attained much popularity with Parisien audiences. He became conductor of the Theatre Francais in 1847 and subsequently leased the Theatre Comte, which he reopened as the Bouffes-Parisiens. Most of his operas are classed as comic (light and fanciful) and include numerous popular productions, many of which still hold a high place in European and American countries.
Genevieve de Brabant was the wife of Count Siegfried of Brabant. Brabant, a district in the central lowlands of Holland and Belgium, formerly constituted an independent duchy. The southern portions were inhabited by Walloons, a class of people now occupying the southeastern part of Belgium, especially the provinces of Liege, Arlon and Namur.
Every campaign the Marines have taken part in gives birth to an unofficial verse. For example, the following from Iceland:
"Again in nineteen forty-one
We sailed a north'ard course
And found beneath the midnight sun,
The Viking and the Norse.
The Iceland girls were slim and fair,
And fair the Iceland scenes,
And the Army found in landing there,
The United States Marines."
Copyright ownership of the Marines' Hymn was vested in the United States Marine Corps per certificate of registration dated August 19, 1891 but is now in the public domain. In 1929, the Commandant of the Marine Corps authorized the following verses of the Marines' Hymn as the official version:
The Marine's Hymn Lyrics
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.
Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job --
The United States Marines.
Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.
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"The Army Goes Rolling Along" - Official Song of the U.S. Army
compliments of http://bands.army.mil/music/soldierssong.asp
A Soldier's SongExcerpt from Soldiers Online - July 1994By F. Peter Wigginton(journalist with the American Forces Information Service in Alexandria, Va.)
It [The Army Song] got its beginnings during a difficult march across the Zambales Mountains in the Philippines. As a lieutenant leading a small detachment to select a route, Brig. Gen. Edmund L. "Snitz" Gruber overheard a section chief call to his drivers, "Come on! Keep them rolling!"
Gruber, an artillery officer whose relative, Franz, composed "Silent Night," was stationed with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery, in the Philippines. In March 1908, about a year after Gruber overheard that section chief in the mountains, six young lieutenants - including William Bryden and Robert Danford - gathered in his thatch hut and decided they needed a song for the field artillery.
"A guitar was produced and tuned and - in what seemed to us a few moments - as if suddenly inspired, Snitz fingered the melody of the now-famous song," recalled Danford, who retired as a major general. Danford and Bryden helped complete the lyrics.
Gruber taught the song to officers of the 1st Battalion as they arrived at Fort Stotsenburg. Wrote Danford: "A few evenings later at the post reception for the new unit and adieu to the old, 'The Caisson Song' was given its first public rendition. Its popularity was instantaneous, and almost in no time all six of the regiments then composing the U.S. Field Artillery adopted it."
During the last days of World War I, senior artillery leaders wanted an official marching song. An artillery officer who did not know Gruber and thought "The Caisson Song" dated back to the Civil War, gave the piece to noted composer and bandmaster John Philip Sousa and asked him to fix it up.
Sousa incorporated Gruber's piece into his composition, which he titled, "The U.S. Field Artillery March" - a few beginning measures being his own and the balance from Gruber.
The resulting song became a blockbuster record during World War I, selling about 750,000 copies. Gruber heard of it and asked Sousa, "How about some money, since I wrote the song?" Embarrassed, the innocent Sousa made certain Gruber got his royalties.
In 1948, the Army conducted a nationwide contest to come up with its own official song. None of the five winners achieved any notable popularity. In 1952, the secretary of the Army appealed to the music industry for a composition. Composers submitted an avalanche of more than 800 songs.
But no submission sparkled enough to be accepted. So a soldier music adviser in the Adjutant General's office was asked to try his hand at it. As a result, H.W. Arberg adapted "The Caisson Song" to become the official U.S. Army song, "
The Army Goes Rolling Along."
The "Army Goes Rolling Along" is played at the conclusion of every U.S. Army ceremony and all soldiers are expected to stand and sing.
Lyrics:
Intro:
March along, sing our song,
with the Army of the free
Count the brave, count the true,
who have fought to victory
We’re the Army and proud of our name
We’re the Army and proudly proclaim
Verse:
First to fight for the right,
And to build the Nation’s might,
And The Army Goes Rolling Along
Proud of all we have done,
Fighting till the battle’s won,
And the Army Goes Rolling Along.
Refrain:
Then it’s Hi! Hi! Hey!
The Army’s on its way.
Count off the cadence loud and strong
For where e’er we go,You will always know
That The Army Goes Rolling Along.
Verse:
Valley Forge, Custer’s ranks,
San Juan Hill and Patton’s tanks,
And the Army went rolling along
Minute men, from the start,
Always fighting from the heart,
And the Army keeps rolling along.
(refrain)
Verse:
Men in rags, men who froze,
Still that Army met its foes,
And the Army went rolling along.
Faith in God, then we’re right,
And we’ll fight with all our might,
As the Army keeps rolling along.
Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun;
Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,
At 'em boys, give 'er the gun (give 'er the gun now!)
Down we dive spouting our flame from under
Off with one helluva roar!
We live in fame or go down in flame, hey!
Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!
Minds of men fashioned a crate of thunder,
Sent it high into the blue;
Hands of men blasted the world asunder;
How they lived God only knew! (God only knew then!)
Souls of men dreaming of skies to conquer
Gave us wings, ever to soar!
With scouts before And bombers galore.
Hey! Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!
Off we go into the wild sky yonder,
Keep the wings level and true;
If you'd live to be a grey-haired wonder
Keep the nose out of the blue!
(Out of the blue, boy!)
Flying men, guarding the nation's border,
We'll be there, followed by more!
In echelon we carry on.
Hey! Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!
In 1938, Brig. Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, a true visionary, didn't feel that the Army's traditional "caisson" song was appropriate to the new role of the Army Air Corps. The lyrics, "the army goes rolling along," worked well for depicting images of tanks and armored vehicles; unfortunately, the music and the words didn't quite fit the futuristic image of our new flying service.
Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, then chief of the Army Air Corps, was in complete agreement. Westover expressed the need for a musical composition to represent the Army Air Corps, stating, "It's a shame the Air Corps has no song of its own." Due to a lack of direct control over funding and other interservice issues, the Air Corps could not commission a composer to write a song. Determined to find a solution to this problem, Gen. Westover turned to his friend and colleague, Bernarr MacFadden.
Bernarr MacFadden, aviation enthusiast and editor of Liberty Magazine, came up with the idea to sponsor a composition contest. The winning song would be used as the official song of the Army Air Corps. The announcement, published in the Sept 10, 1938 issue, offered a cash prize of $1,000 -- a considerable sum at the time.
Next, Gen. Arnold chose a panel of Air Corps officers' wives with musical backgrounds to select the winner. Mrs. Mildred A. Yount (wife of Lt. Gen. Burton K. Yount) was selected to chair the song committee. After completing an exhausting review of nearly 800 submitted scores, the committee was ready to give up; they had not found a single suitable composition. The song had to be more than just a great song, as several of the submissions were. The music and lyrics had to be great, fit with the image of an armed service and invoke the image of flight.
Many months later, in June 1939, a man by the name of Robert M. Crawford found out about the competition. A composer and pilot himself, he certainly had the "right stuff" to write a song about the Army Air Corps.
While flying from Newark, New Jersey to Bridgeport, Conn., Crawford composed the song in his head. When he arrived home, he exclaimed to his wife, "Hessie, I've got it, that is the music! When I flew home today it just seemed to come to me ... I even have a few words ... 'Off we go into the wild blue yonder'." By the next day, the song was complete.
Since the deadline for submissions was drawing near, Crawford and his wife flew to Washington, D.C., to submit the new song (not yet on paper) in person. Mrs. Yount was very impressed with Crawford's audition, due in no small part to the fact that he was an accomplished baritone vocalist. The next day Mrs. Yount's committee reviewed, approved, and submitted the song to Gen. Arnold for final approval. On Aug. 18, 1939, Arnold, in his capacity as assistant chief of the U.S. Air Corps, approved the song and thus made it official. The song was officially introduced at the Cleveland Air Races on Sept. 2, 1939.
Fittingly, Crawford sang in its first public performance. When the United States entered World War II, Crawford became a pilot in the Air Transport Command. He reverted to inactive status in 1946 and returned to music. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve.
Interesting Additional Fact:The Army Air Corps (the song's original title) was a "top hit" in 1939. Fueled by the devastating attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the song enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in 1942. With public sentiment in support of our nation at war, the fighting words of The Army Air Corps were suddenly highly appropriate and easy to remember.
The song continued to make history. The first page of the original score, penned in1939, was carried to the surface of the moon on July 30, 1971 aboard the Apollo 15 Falcon lunar module. The first and only all-Air Force crew was composed of retired Cols. David R. Scott, Alfred M. Worden and the late James B. Irwin. They arranged to take the sheet of music with them as a tribute to Crawford and the U.S. Air Force.
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No one seems to know exactly how Semper Paratus was chosen as the Coast Guard’s motto. But there is no doubt as to who put the famous motto to words and music. Captain Francis Saltus Van Boskerck wrote the words in the cabin of the cutter Yamacraw in Savannah, Ga., in 1922. He wrote the music five years later on a beat-up old piano in Unalaska, Alaska. At that time it was probably the only piano in the whole long chain of Aleutian Islands. Van Boskerck received his commission in the Revenue Cutter Service May 20, 1891.
In 1917 he was Captain of the Port in Philadelphia and an aide for the fourth naval district at the American routing office in Philadelphia. He was also censor for the district, and was the first Coast Guard officer to report a German submarine on the Atlantic coast. After the war, Van Boskerck transferred to the Puget Sound Navy Yard to supervise repairs on the famous cutter Bear. He commanded Bear on the 1920 summer cruise to the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.
In 1922, as commander of Yamacraw, Van Boskerck was stationed at Savannah and chased rum-runners off the coast of the Carolinas and Florida. In 1923 he went to the Naval War College at Newport, R.I., and in 1924 became District Commander of the Great Lakes District. Van Boskerck was commissioned Captain in 1925.
"Captain Van," as he was known to his many friends, was next ordered to Seattle as Assistant Inspector of the Northwest District. In 1925 and 1926 he was Commander of the Bering Sea Forces, headquartered at the remote port of Unalaska. It was here that he found time to fit the words of his song to music with the help of two Public Health dentists, Alf E. Nannestad and Joseph O. Fournier. Mrs. Albert C. Clara Goss, the wife of a fur trader, let them use the beat-up piano on which the song was written. For probably as long as Captain Van Boskerck could remember, Semper Paratus had been a Revenue Cutter and Coast Guard watchword. The words themselves, always ready or ever ready, date back to ancient times.
No official recognition was given to the Coast Guard motto until it appeared in 1910 on the ensign. Captain Van Boskerck hoped to give it as much recognition as "Semper Fidelis" of the Marines and "Anchors Aweigh" of the Navy.
Semper Paratus (Always Ready) - Words and Music by Captain Francis Saltus Van Boskerck, USCG
Current version:
From Aztec shore to Arctic zone,
To Europe and Far East.
The Flag is carried by our ships,
In times of war and peace.
And never have we struck it yet,
In spite of foe-men's might,
Who cheered our crews and cheered again,
For showing how to fight.
We're always ready for the call,
We place our trust in Thee.
Through surf and storm and howling gale,
High shall our purpose be.
"Semper Paratus" is our guide,
Our fame, our glory too.
To fight to save or fight to die,
Aye! Coast Guard, we are for you!
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The National Guard, the oldest component of the Armed Forces of the United States and one of the nation's longest-enduring institutions, celebrated its 370th birthday on December 13, 2006. The National Guard traces its history back to the earliest English colonies in North America. Responsible for their own defense, the colonists drew on English military tradition and organized their able-bodied male citizens into militias.
The colonial militias protected their fellow citizens from Indian attack, foreign invaders, and later helped to win the Revolutionary War. Following independence, the authors of the Constitution empowered Congress to "provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia." However, recognizing the militia's state role, the Founding Fathers reserved the appointment of officers and training of the militia to the states. Today's National Guard still remains a dual state-Federal force.
Throughout the 19th century the size of the Regular Army was small, and the militia provided the bulk of the troops during the Mexican War, the early months of the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. In 1903, important national defense legislation increased the role of the National Guard (as the militia was now called) as a Reserve force for the U.S. Army. In World War I, which the U.S. entered in 1917, the National Guard made up 40% of the U.S. combat divisions in France; in World War II, National Guard units were among the first to deploy overseas and the first to fight.
Following World War II, National Guard aviation units, some of them dating back to World War I, became the Air National Guard, the nation's newest Reserve component. The Guard stood on the frontiers of freedom during the Cold War, sending soldiers and airmen to fight in Korea and to reinforce NATO during the Berlin crisis of 1961-1962. During the Vietnam war, almost 23,000 Army and Air Guardsmen were called up for a year of active duty; some 8,700 were deployed to Vietnam. Over 75,000 Army and Air Guardsmen were called upon to help bring a swift end to Desert Storm in 1991.
Since that time, the National Guard has seen the nature of its Federal mission change, with more frequent call ups in response to crises in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and the skies over Iraq. Most recently, following the attacks of September 11, 2001, more than 50,000 Guardmembers were called up by both their States and the Federal government to provide security at home and combat terrorism abroad. In the largest and swiftest response to a domestic disaster in history, the Guard deployed more than 50,000 troops in support of the Gulf States following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Today, tens of thousands of Guardmembers are serving in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the National Guard continues its historic dual mission, providing to the states units trained and equipped to protect life and property, while providing to the nation units trained, equipped and ready to defend the United States and its interests, all over the globe.
Official Song of The National Guard
I was a minuteman at Concord Bridge
The shot heard 'round the worldand
I was there on Bunker Hill
When "Old Glory" was unfurled
And when my country called me
From within or from afar
I'll be first to answerProud
to be the Guard
Defending Freedom protecting dreams
This is the spirit of what it means to me
For my God and my home that I love
I GUARD AMERICA
And in the eyes of my enemies
Or the eye of a storm
I face the dangers as they come
In any shape or form
I am your sons, your friends, your fathers
And your daughters working hard
To be the best and keep us strong
Proud to be the Guard
Defending Freedom protecting dreams
This is the spirit of what it means to me
For my God and my home that I love
I GUARD AMERICA
Defending Freedom protecting dreams
This is the spirit of what it means to me
For my God and my home that I love
I GUARD AMERICA
Guarding AMERICA
AMERICA
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And, finally, the song that is all too familiar to us as we have seen so many fallen heroes coming home these last few years:
There is a
myth about the origin of Taps that is circulating about the Internet. The true story is that in July 1862, after the Seven Days battles at Harrison's Landing (near Richmond), Virginia, the wounded Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Army Corps, Army of the Potomac,
General Daniel Butterfield reworked, with his bugler Oliver Wilcox Norton, another bugle call, "Scott Tattoo," to create Taps. He thought that the regular call for Lights Out was too formal. Taps was adopted throughout the Army of the Potomac and finally confirmed by orders. Soon other Union units began using Taps, and even a few Confederate units began using it as well. After the war, Taps became an official bugle call. Col. James A. Moss, in his Officer's Manual first published in 1911, gives an account of the initial use of Taps at a military funeral:
"During the Peninsular Campaign in 1862, a soldier of Tidball's Battery A of the 2nd Artillery was buried at a time when the battery occupied an advanced position concealed in the woods. It was unsafe to fire the
customary three volleys over the grave, on account of the proximity of the enemy, and it occurred to Capt. Tidball that the sounding of Taps would be the most appropriate ceremony that could be substituted."
Words to Taps (Note: there are no "official" words to Taps - below are the most popular.)
Day is done,gone the sun,
From the hills,from the lake,From the skies.
All is well,safely rest,
God is nigh.
Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldieror sailor,God keep.
On the landor the deep,
Safe in sleep.
Love, good night,Must thou go,
When the day,And the nightNeed thee so?
All is well.Speedeth all
To their rest.
Fades the light;And afarGoeth day
,And the starsShineth bright,
Fare thee well;Day has gone,
Night is on.
Thanks and praise,For our days,
'Neath the sun, Neath the stars, 'Neath the sky,
As we go,This we know,
God is nigh
I hope you all enjoyed this collection of information as much as I enjoyed researching it and putting it together. We look forward to you joining us weekly on the United We Roll World Tour Show on Stardust Radio (
www.stardustradio.com) – Tuesday afternoons 3pm-5pm Central time. As always, dedicated to our military members, families, Vets and those who support our military!
Blessings To You All,
Judi
