The concert performed by the Army Field Band at the Freeport Performing Arts Center last Tuesday made me proud to be a citizen of the nation that values its freedoms and produces generations willing to sacrifice for them.

The band’s music ranged from opera to Mozart, Broadway to spirituals and nursery rhymes, with marches, anthems and hymns tucked in between. The brilliance of the individual musicians and singers was spectacular and in combination it was astounding. Our Army Field Band is world class, and could just as well have been performing at Carnegie Hall. But they were performing at FPAC last Tuesday and as they did my pride in hosting them at our school grew. Congratulations to David Watts and the RSU board for bringing them here.

My pride overflowed when the band made room for 14 of our high school singers and musicians to join them for a rousing Sousa march. Imagine that, our students, playing at that level, with these guys. Then just as my pride in our students began to subside, the conductor announced an Armed Forces medley and invited veterans to stand when they heard their service song played. Never have I envied service so. When Joe Field finished standing to the strains of his Coast Guard song, there wasn’t a dry eye in my head. When Peter Horne sat at the end of the Air Force Anthem, there were no dry eyes in the hall. How very personal their stands made the narrator’s oration about service. For in the moments they stood, we remembered the sacrifices they made.

So if you missed the Army Field Band performance, I’m sorry, but I hope you can appreciate how special it was. We were thoroughly entertained and gently reminded how our freedoms are preserved.

Ed Bradley

Freeport