Maybe I just missed it in all the arguing....but, when and where is the FTAB practicing their drill for the bowl game?

I like the FTAB - 40s,50,60s, up through 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the 40s we had three bands, Maroon, White, and Fish.

I see at the game today that the FTAB is wearing Class A Summers. Midnights would look so much better. IMHO, the only time to wear Summer A's or B's is when the weather precludes wearing A winters or midnights for the game.

Midnights have become the go-to uniform for everything, they are no longer anything special. When I was there we didn't have the Winter A's either, so that gave us even less of a uniform spectrum.

I'm ok with the Summer A's considering the alternative would've likely been B's, like it has been for so many Parent's Weekends.

Did any of you guys ever figure out where practice was and go heckle the band for not being in utilities?

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I'm ok with the Summer A's considering the alternative would've likely been B's

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I agree, now it's tme to move on

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I see at the game today that the FTAB is wearing Class A Summers. Midnights would look so much better. IMHO, the only time to wear Summer A's or B's is when the weather precludes wearing A winters or midnights for the game.

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Why are you always trying to start crap?? Why can't you just be happy?? U always have to find something wrong with others. Does that make you feel better about yourself?

Try saying something like this: Well the band sure looked good today. Makes me proud to be an old Q!

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As far as the FTAB no longer serving as the basketball band, it was a simple matter of logistics. It was too much.

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I call B.S. on this. There was never any problem when Artillery and Infantry bands alternated for basketball games. When the so called "Hullabaloo band" was started, that opened a crack that I am still worried about. Sooner or later someone is going to argue that if you don't have to be in the corps to be a part of the hullabaloo crap than why do you have to be in the corps to be a part of the FTAB? When that day comes we all have to do our part to vocally support the FTAB as we know it.

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Think back to when we were in the band. Our grades as a whole sucked, we had 30% retention, and there were many things going on that we all can agree that needed to stop.

Classes are harder now and require more time. Contracts are more competitive and require better grades.

Back when we were in the band, if someone wasn't taking care of his duties, we would beat the *****out of him until he quit. That doesn't happen anymore. It can't happen anymore. People would sign out of bball games for any reason possible and the same people would do it over and over and over. Then they get behind on grades, pt, etc....going to games was a boof and its good that they are giving the responsibility to people who actually want to be there.

There will always be enough people willing to be cadets in order to be in the FTAB and march on kyle.

Gar, please point out where I said the FTAB looked bad. I just commented that I thought the A Winters and Midnights were better looking uniforms in most occasions.

I don't have a problem with the wearing of Bs early in the football season given the high heat and humidity of game day. Since the A winters were phased out for a few years due to their worn condition and the lack of an acceptable supplier, I didn't have a problem with issuing midnights to blackbelts. I didn't have a problem with serges being issued to blackbelts as a means to reduce cost. But I still think the midnights would have looked better than A Summers for a bowl appearance.

If I comment on another thread that I think the Marines have a better looking dress uniform than the Army would that mean I was talking crap about the Army? If I said I thought the ACUs were not up to par, would that mean I was talking crap about the Army?

If I'm wrong, I'll make sure and check with you in the future to find out when it is OK to voice an opinion or offer constructive criticism.

The is a message board meant for opinions. And I agree, the marines dress looks much better than the armies(and I was in the army) but u are constantly trying to find something to complain about. Alphas have a unique look to them and the last game they wore midnight! They just wanted to change things up! It helps recruiting when you show off the different uniforms you have/wear!

Our bowl rehearsals were always in jeans and polo from 2000-2004 (for the few bowl games we went to) because our travel was so well organized. We'd figure out how many hours were needed for travel, subtract that from the arrival time, and that was when we left. Even if it was 3 a.m. No more long trips, they do not want BQs missing class. So therefore we'd usually roll out of the bus in whatever we were wearing and drill.

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Our bowl rehearsals were always in jeans and polo from 2000-2004 (for the few bowl games we went to)...they do not want BQs missing class.

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There are exactly ZERO bowl games that occur during the school year.

I think he meant for the few ROAD games.

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GARBQ84

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My wife's mentor is one of your fish buddies. (his initials are JK) From my conversations with him, our experiences weren't that much different (I graduated in 2000) except that we were more constrained in what we were allowed to physically do.

Also, I've heard that the entire classes of 82-84 are on a standing gag order with respect to Jay Brewer.

pretty clear he meant:

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Our bowl rehearsals

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just a few points to clear up some things:

The band drills in PT gear, bc they do about 15 min of PT before chow. (At least in '09)

Drill times were cut short beginning in 2005

The new band hall will be built on Duncan field. A new turf field will replace JTHDF. It will be a state-of-the-art facility that i'm sure all former BQs will be proud of, and one that the band deserves.

The FTAB reports to the VPSAs office, not the college of liberal arts. VPSA controls the purse strings.

^^^If I'm misinformed on any of this, then sorry in advance.

Fifteen minutes of PT will hardly break a sweat. Doesn't seem like much of an excuse for ditching drill field uniform and no excuse for not wearing drill field uniform for the bowl rehearsal.

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The new band hall will be built on Duncan field. A new turf field will replace JTHDF. It will be a state-of-the-art facility that i'm sure all former BQs will be proud of, and one that the band deserves.

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Most former BQs don't want a state of the art facility. They want state of the art PEOPLE.

We did plenty more than 15 minutes of PT in the drill field uniform. That's not a reason.

CGSC- What does that even mean? Are you saying the band doesn't have quality members? Not trying to flame.

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Fifteen minutes of PT will hardly break a sweat.

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I wasn't a BQ, and I'm not trying to justify the PT gear, but I believe there were some significant improvements in band PT scores that year. If I recall correctly at the beginning of the year there were more people failing PFTs or failing height/weight requirements in the band than the rest of the Corps combined. There was a big improvement by the second semester. Not sure if it corresponded to Duncan making fewer donuts as the year went on or if it was the PT, but something was working.

For some reason I feel like a bunch of people are trying to convince me it is raining.

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CGSC- What does that even mean? Are you saying the band doesn't have quality members? Not trying to flame.

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What I'm saying is that it appears that there has been less of an emphasis on the bandsmen being cadets than being band members.

Good luck finding another Jason Blevins, Tyson Voelkel, or Clay Kennedy.

I understand what you mean, especially since those names still come up from time to time But who are you to say that there aren't currently bandsmen of that caliber currently in the band or since the 90's? I can assure you that from my time in the FTAB there have been many people that I would consider top notch.

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Good luck finding another Jason Blevins, Tyson Voelkel, or Clay Kennedy.

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Already found him. Look no further than you current CBC. He will be a Army flag officer one.

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What I'm saying is that it appears that there has been less of an emphasis on the bandsmen being cadets than being band members.

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Do you mean they need to be taught that the band is indeed part of the Corps? Or that they need to do more PT, more leadership training and stuff that will produce better officers/civilian leaders? Or both?

When I was there it felt like much of the band thought they were something separate from the rest of the Corps. I'm pretty sure they even skipped a Corps run, and when we came back one of the outfits was playing basketball on the courts behind dorm 9.

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Most former BQs don't want a state of the art facility. They want state of the art PEOPLE.

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That was well said. But, I'd modify it a bit to say they want people who are looking to improve themselves to become somebody and are looking for the challenging training that the band can provide.

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But who are you to say that there aren't currently bandsmen of that caliber currently in the band or since the 90's?

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I play a fair amount of Texas Hold 'Em (since a D&C Fighter from The Regiment taught me how to play circa 2000 in Denver). If you've got the winning hand, you don't have to blab about it, once you flip your cards over at the end of the hand, you can "let the cards speak". I'm going to "let the cards speak".

From my last trip to College Station - Fall 2010


While I did meet some good cadets who will do great things in the future, on the other side of the coin. During our picnic, the White Belt who skipped the all classes B-Company Hump-It so that she could sit with her mother and continue to whine about the major personal crisis she was having because somebody had "dissed" her on Facebook. That kind of behavior was unbelievable. Not to mention that I didn't know people still used expired terms like "diss". Although, in fairness, she was from a small town a short drive from College Station so maybe they just started getting re-runs of Arsenio Hall - 20 years after the fact.

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He will be a Army flag officer one.

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As a retired E8, you KNOW better than to annoint a cadet the next "General ____" before he or she has even pinned on his gold bars. Far too much goes into the selection process that is outside his control or even awareness.

Not to mention the fact that there has never been a 4-star Army Officer not a member of the Army Air Corps from Texas A&M. It's been lamented many times how effective West Pointers have been in assuring that no Aggie in the Army ever advanced beyond LTG. Nowadays, it's hard to get them past 2-star. The highest ranking Army Officers (still active) from A&M are all Major Generals (there's 6 of them)

[This message has been edited by CGSC Lobotomy (edited 1/14/2012 1:35a).]

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When I was there it felt like much of the band thought they were something separate from the rest of the Corps

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That was NOT the case while I was in school...at least not in B-Battery.

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But, I'd modify it a bit to say they want people who are looking to improve themselves to become somebody and are looking for the challenging training that the band can provide.

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Sir, I'm still a junior FG. I haven't grown into the diplomatic process that you figure out before you pin O5.