The United States Army Air Forces Band
The United States Army Air Forces needed a band. It had to be a good band too, one that would keep pace with—or better still—lead the streamlined Air Forces.
In 1942 Warrant Officer Alf Heiberg was appointed to organize and lead the new band. At Bolling Field, Washington, D. C., the national Headquarters of the U. S. Army Air Force, Officer Heiberg found a saxophone quartette happily playing “on their own.” With this group for a nucleus he began to assemble his band. It was an easier job than Heiberg had anticipated for there were many experienced and outstanding musicians among the fliers who were eager to play, and an adequate number of men were soon enrolled. They were all enthusiastic and practiced so faithfully that in an unbelievably short time the United States Air Force had a good band, one that compared favorably with the other service bands.
A new leader was assigned in March, 1944, Captain George Sallade Howard. He was the ideal man for the job, a man with talent, training and ideas. A highly educated musician. Captain Howard at forty had spent half his years in music teaching and directing bands and orchestras. An inspiring conductor, Captain Howard also possessed many original ideas which soon began to produce unusual results in his work with this new band.
After two months of intensive practice the Air Force Band went on a concert tour throughout eastern Canada. It was acclaimed by the critics as the finest concert band ever heard.
Upon returning to Washington the Band played at a command performance at the White House. That the program was successful was evident, as the Air Force Band was immediately sent on an exchange tour of Great Britain which brought the RAF Central Band to America.
From their first program in Royal Albert Hall in London, the Air Force Band was praised in highest terms by the foremost English musicians. At that time Britain was living on extremely short food and fuel rations. Many concerts were played by the Bandsmen bundled up in their heavy overcoats, and at times, even wearing their hats and gloves.
On account of the cold weather, and the unheated buildings, the people in England generally had colds. Consequently the audiences coughed noisily during the concerts, but they were enthusiastic over the fine playing of the great Air Force Band from America. Frequent air raids and buzz bombs also interfered with concert programs. After the “Battle of the Bulge” Captain Howard and his band returned to the United States.
At the end of the war in 1945, this Air Force group was disbanded. However, the United States Army Air Forces could not do without their fine band. Captain Howard had established his reputation as an unusually capable conductor. He was transferred to the permanent Air Force with the rank of Major and given the duty of organizing a permanent Air Force Band.
Only five of the one-hundred-piece wartime band were willing to reenlist. Major Howard had to start his new organization from the very beginning. He had decided ideas regarding the possibilities of a large military band and he proceeded to put them in force. Determined to have only the best musicians, he used the utmost care in selecting the players. Fully 1,100 men applied for admission and each one was critically auditioned.
One hundred and fifteen players were selected—a rare group—so many were experts, men who had occupied top places in topmost organizations. Some had been graduated from outstanding universities, others had played in famous orchestras, symphonic and popular swing bands. One player had been a symphony concertmeister, and the famous baritone soloist, Glenn Darwin, came from the Metropolitan Opera Company.
For his first assistant Major Howard appointed Chief Warrant Officer John F. Yesulaitis, who was not only a graduate in music, but also had an extensive military experience. He had been a bandleader in World War II and in charge of the 7th and 77th Infantry division bands in the South and West Pacific. He is the most decorated member of the band having made every landing and taken part in every important campaign in the Pacific.
Robert L. Landers, the director of the band’s famous glee club, “The Singing Sergeants,” is an important member of the Major’s staff. He has a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, studied under Sir Thomas Beecham, Assistant Conductor of the San Carlo Opera Company, Leader of 529th Air Force Band at Atlantic City and also at Buckley Field in Denver.
These, and many other gifted artists, make up a splendid ensemble who are able at the same time to make their individual talents apparent. From this versatile organization, Colonel Howard—he was made a Lt. Colonel in 1949—can send out a marching band of one hundred or more men. He can choose eighty to ninety to form a symphonic band, seventy or as many as he likes for a concert orchestra. He has several dance bands, chamber music sextettes, and a well-balanced glee club.
A staff of music writers are kept at work making new arrangements, a well-trained narrator announces the program descriptions and reads the necessary script. And the maestro of this great band supervises the building of the programs which he rehearses and conducts for radio, concert stage and military duty. Besides these performances they average three concert tours a year, provide music for important military and state functions and represent the United States Air Force musically. The Air Force Band is usually in attendance when foreign diplomats or royalty happen to be in the Capital. During the summer military band concerts are given in various centers of Washington, and orchestra concerts are played during the winter in the Lisner auditorium. The concerts by the Air Force Band, as well as those by the other Service Bands, are free to the public.
Colonel Howard says, “We wanted a unit that was as streamlined as the Air Forces themselves.... We desired a band that could give a performance of Scheherazade or The Flying Dutchman comparable to that by any symphony orchestra, and in the next breath could rival Benny Goodman.”
In this they have succeeded.
LT. COLONEL GEORGE S. HOWARD
Leader of the U.S.A. Air Force Band
George Sallade Howard, son of Florence and Hayden Howard, was born February 24, 1903, in Reamstown, Pennsylvania. His father had been a soldier in the Spanish-American War and his Grandfather Howard a member of the Union Cavalry during the Civil War. George, the only son, liked to listen to his father’s thrilling war stories, and they had fought over the Spanish-American battles many times.
Although there was much music around the Howard home, young George Sallade Howard, the only child, didn’t want to be a musician. His mother was a professional pianist and Grandfather Sallade who lived with them was a former bandleader and clarinetist. But George would have no lessons from either of them.
But no one needed to tell Grandfather Sallade that George would some day be a great clarinet player, because he knew it. He knew it by the way George listened to music and by the questions he asked about the clarinet. However no one urged the boy to study music until he was ready.
That time came when at the age of fifteen he entered high school and heard the school band. Rushing home the first day, he announced, “I’m going to be in the band, and I want to play the clarinet. Will you teach me, Grandfather?”
His music-loving family knew that home instruction was not always satisfactory, so they sent him to study under a local teacher. He had more questions than ever to ask his grandfather, but it was many years later when George realized how much help and encouragement he had received from him during his school band days.
From high school George went to Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, having won a three-year music scholarship there. Although his parents were well able to meet his college expenses, George earned all his spending money by playing in the Ithaca Theater Orchestra.
After receiving his degree from Ithaca, George started collecting more sheepskins. He studied at Ohio Wesleyan until he received his A.B. degree, then went on to Chicago Conservatory for his degree of Master of Music. His ambition still unsatisfied, he secured his Master’s degree at New York University and returned to Chicago Conservatory for his doctorate of music.
With all this extensive preparation and an armful of degrees, George Howard at the age of nineteen, began his career in Patrick Conway’s famous band. Five years later he was the clarinet soloist, a chair he held for two years.
Then he left the concert field to become an educator in the music field. He was asked to return to his first college, Ithaca, this time to teach clarinet and saxophone. From Ithaca he went to the second college he had attended, Ohio Wesleyan University, as instructor of wind pedagogy.
As George Howard’s reputation as a leader and teacher spread, he was in great demand. He accepted the job of Director of Music at the widely-known national home for young people maintained by the Moose Lodge in Mooseheart, Illinois. Here the Mooseheart Band under his direction won the Illinois state championship for four consecutive years.
From 1936 to 1942 Howard was Director of Music at Pennsylvania State Teachers College where they proudly tell about his achievements in their music department during that time. Reluctantly they released him “on leave” to the army.
His most satisfying experience came when he was sent to do special service for the United States Army in Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland, and Labrador in 1942. He was given the rank of Captain and told that his job was to build up the morale of the soldiers stationed there. He traveled alone and found a new use for his talents and training.
To quote his own words, “I had always believed that music exerted a greater influence on people than any other type of culture, and this idea was fully verified when I took up my work on this assignment. There were these lonely men, stationed in isolated places, and with no entertainment during the long, sunless, winter hours. It was a fertile field for music’s spell, but it was very difficult at first to arouse their interest and cooperation.”
However Captain Howard’s wide experience had taught him how to make contact with many types of people. Genial, earnest and dynamic, he soon had an audience. He taught them to play on small, basic musical instruments such as the ukelele, harmonica and tonettes. The tonette is a midget clarinet that was very popular with U. S. troops the world over. He helped organize dance orchestras, military bands, and even “barber shop” quartettes.
“After a while,” continued the Captain, “music melted their hearts. Often six or seven hundred crowded into the room to sing together old songs and to learn new ones. Their faces, formerly dull and unresponsive, showed their pleasure and enjoyment. The talent of some of them surprised me. One soldier in Greenland made one of the finest-toned violins I have ever heard from a few strands of wire, some wood and a little glue.”
After Captain Howard had finished his assignment of setting up musical programs in the North Atlantic Command, he returned to Washington, D. C.
In March, 1944, he transferred from the Army to the Air Force as Commanding Officer and Conductor of the U. S. Air Force Band. He took the band on a tour of Eastern Canada and then overseas to England, Scotland and France.
When this unit was disbanded at the end of the war, Captain Howard had proven his outstanding qualities as a musical director. He was given the rank of major and a new assignment, that of establishing an Air Force Band on a permanent basis.
The Air Force had found in Major Howard the one person who could mold the kind of musical organization they wanted. Here was a young conductor of forty years, a recipient of five degrees in Music, who had a background of twenty years in the field of musical education. With his added experiences and achievements in both Army and Air Force music, Major Howard was a well-known man in the world of music. That made it easier for him to assemble a group of outstanding musicians for the new service band.
In 1949 the rank of Lt. Colonel was bestowed upon the Commandant of the now internationally known U. S. Air Force Band.
Colonel Howard is doing what most people would call a super-human job. When he was asked about his vacation, he said slowly, “Vacation. That is something I dream about.”
Colonel Howard rides horseback when he can. He likes to read fiction or to look at television or listen to his large collection of records in his bachelor apartment in Washington. Redecorating his apartment has grown to be a habit with the Colonel. Recently he has had three side walls painted a vivid dark blue and the fourth side a copper tone. The ceiling is white. The Colonel said, “This sounds startling, but it really isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
Colonel Howard’s medals are quite impressive. Among them are the Legion of Merit and the U. S. Army Commendation Ribbon with five oak leaf clusters.
He is the author of many magazine articles and of Ten Minute Self-Instructor for Pocket Instruments. Among his music compositions are: The Red Feather (theme song for Community Chest), American Doughboy, My Missouri, Niece of Uncle Sam, and General Spaatz March.
Lt. Colonel George S. Howard, “Chief of Bands and Music and Conductor, U.S.A.F. Band and Orchestra,” has earned the respect and affection of his musicians and of his public.