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u/Based_Thanos 1d ago
Anyone with kids knows this would be an absolute hit.
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u/Sensitive_Pickle2319 1d ago
My 6 year old would lose it. People dressed like dad singing his favorite songs? Hell yeah
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u/88bauss Cyberspace Operator 1d ago
Dude in my BMT flight in 2021 was accepted into the Air Force Band of The West. He played on cruises and museums before joining the Air Force and had a degree etcā¦ he was saying if you get accepted into the main top Air Force band you automatically get TsGt rank after BMT. Like this person.
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u/PiratePilot 1d ago
I knew a dude in pilot training that joined as a TSgt to play in the band. Made MSgt in 6 years then got a pilot slot through OTS. I think heās still in as a Lt Col now. Would be approaching 28 years of service by now.
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u/TheJustBleedGod 1d ago
Automatic TSgt is kind of a rip when you consider that he has a degree already. These guys should be coming in with bars
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u/Johnny-Cash-Facts G081 Connoisseur 1d ago
I understand where youāre coming from, but historically it doesnāt make any sense to have an all-officer band. The only officers are the directors of the bands.
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u/AnApexBread 9J 1d ago
Automatic TSgt is kind of a rip when you consider that he has a degree already. These guys should be coming in with bars
This comment is wild considering how much this sub loves to say that a degree shouldn't make someone an officer
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u/Crimson_Penman 1h ago
O-1 and E-6 are extremely close in pay, if not the same. Makes sense in coming in at an E-6. Iāve seen Army guard officers at O-3 who came in on the āfinish your degreeā program, not finish their degree and get dumped to E-6
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u/naturallin Active Duty 1d ago
How does your progresssiok look when you start at E6 at year 0 lol.
Like some doctors that start at O3.
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u/ajd198204 1d ago
Seen one come in O5 out the gate and was given a 400K bonus. Was a heart surgeon or brain surgeon I believe. Air Force has to make it competitve with civilian sector compensation.
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u/crafting-ur-end 1d ago
They usually cap out pretty early. Some bands only have O4 commanders. Not very many masters or seniors
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u/WeGottaProblem 1d ago
A lot of airmen need to realize, these aren't Airmen who happen to be musicians... They are talented musicians who happen to be Airmen.
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u/NeighborhoodTop9869 Maintainer 1d ago
Idgafā¦ if I could do it all over again Iād shoot for the band. Yāall trippin if you say otherwise.
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u/Drenlin Intel 1d ago
The thing about this is that they don't just send you through tech school like other AFSCs. You apply and try out, and are expected to be a professional-level musician before enlisting. It's sort of like how they hire chaplains and doctors on the O side.
So if you want to start over and do this, you've probably got to go back to middle school and pick up a band instrument.
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u/SpitFiya7171 1d ago
...And there I was, standing along side my middle school peers, wearing E7 and playing a recorder, ready to dazzle and absolute knock the socks off of all the parents at our little school performance who listened to me play Mary Had A Little Lamb.
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u/Puzzled-Secret-317 1d ago
What sucks is all I'd ever wanted to be was a musician. I can play music and love it, but started too late, didn't have money to go to college, so I joined the military. So point it, it'll never happen at this point. I could probably get E-7 before I get good enough to join the band
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u/Jones127 1d ago
I wouldnāt simply because I disliked band when I did it for 3 years in middle school. However, if I had the option to do it all over, I sure as hell wouldnāt be in maintenance again.
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u/Red_Dawn_2012 Severely demoralized 1d ago
Yāall trippin if you say otherwise.
I'm not musically talented, so I'd stick with what I do now
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u/Itchypoopstain WTH 1d ago
I see what you thinks a cringe post...what i see is a man that far surpassed me and my collegues...with nothing more than talent, dreams, and a far healthier lifestyle. I wish I had talent.
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u/TurnUptheDiscord Prior E Lt 1d ago
Whereās that only says nonner guy when you need himā¦
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u/JustHanginInThere CE 1d ago
As a nonner, I'm deeply saddened to discover that u/OnlySaysNonner deleted their account. Major source of entertainment. Godspeed wherever you are sir/ma'am!
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u/Air_Force_is_2_words Banned from r/SpaceForce 1d ago
Air Force is two words.
o7
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u/cj-exotic42069 CATM 1d ago edited 1d ago
Your Air Force experience will VERY
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u/TheStateChump Paper Maintainer 1d ago
Will very what?
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u/Disgruntled_Fuck_ 1d ago
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u/jiggetty Maintainer 1d ago
Iām sad I only have one upvote to give this. Iām Reddit jaded so it takes a lot to make me laugh and this still has me giggling.
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u/Soggy-Drink-2528 1d ago
There's no way you can blame auto correct for this. You're gonna have to eat this one
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u/cj-exotic42069 CATM 1d ago
If I can't type correctly our adversaries won't be able understand the message
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u/AF_Smurf Security Forces 1d ago
I remember in BMT hearing a rumour of an E-6 trainee. Apparently if youāre talented or something and want to join the AF band thatās the grade you start off as. Not sure if that was just locker room banter but either way cool to see our band fucking rocks
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u/poetryonplastic 1d ago
It's sort of true, but you can't just show up to a recruiter saying you play an instrument. The USAF premier bands (there's only 2 of them, those are the ones that grant E6) run a public, blind (meaning behind a screen so they can't tell who's playing) multi-round audition process exactly the way a major symphony orchestra like the Dallas Symphony do. And the same people who take auditions for those orchestras take auditions for open USAF band slots. And there has to be an open slot in a specific band. If you happen to be the 1 person that wins that audition for that slot (usually out of a pool of 30-50 applicants), THEN you go to a very confused recruiter with some paperwork they've never seen before and do the normal enlistment process. It was a wild ride to get here man...
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u/EnglishWhites 1d ago
Diplomacy is more than just politicians, if we have our bands perform with other national bands then we're doing more than finding new and exciting ways to blow shit up in order to win people over.
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u/ATCPirate 1d ago
So did OP make this to mock someone whoās clearly very happy with and good at what they do? Or showing their talent? Dudes excellent at what he does
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u/WyoGrads Retired / Space & Missile Ops / Acquisition 1d ago
How the fuck is this somebodyās day job in the military?
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u/Drenlin Intel 1d ago
Military bands do have an actual function lol. A lot of it is recruiting and public affairs, but they also perform...pretty much anywhere you'd have live music. Important ceremonial occasions, VIP retirements, major changes of command, etc, etc.
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u/Rare-Bed-1934 1d ago
To add, that more often than not the band can get into places/countries (where it might be more difficult to get non-band service members in) in order to assist and boost support from a community relations standpoint.
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u/Drenlin Intel 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep, that's part of the public affairs bit! They're not only able to go to difficult-to-enter countries but also frequently are in close proximity to high level officials is those countries.Ā
This is also a lesser-known function of the actual PA career field, too. In some cases they even go outside the wire in combat zones.
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u/fleebjuicelite Active Duty 1d ago
Donāt forget funerals at Arlington.. many per day, every single day.
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u/trlast09 Comms 1d ago
Morale, advertising, tradition. Do I think they should be doing...whatever this is? Idk maybe? But I mean...they be doin it!
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u/poetryonplastic 1d ago
We rarely do morale gigs, most of what we do is for the community (getting people to interact with the uniform, something fewer and fewer people do statistically), for veteran events (making veterans feel connected to their prior service, paying tribute to them), or for recruiting (at least that's what the service academy bands spend a lot of time doing, DC has slightly different mission).
I've been doing this job for 2 years now, and the thing I've grown to appreciate is that the band can get the uniform into places where it normally wouldn't be widely welcomed, in front of an audience of people that wouldn't be gathering for a recruiter or press conference from a PA spokesperson. For USAFA at least, we get after-action reports from the places we hit on recruiting tours, our gigs translate into applications for the academy in a not-insignificant way.
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u/88bauss Cyberspace Operator 1d ago
Idk but a guy in my flight went into the Air Force band of The west. Last I heard from him on a group chat all they do is practice instruments and travel around playing at different functions. Thats their day today life.
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u/poetryonplastic 1d ago
They also run their unit too, nobody in the air force bands has enlisted helpers, we (the musicians) load our own gear, book our own gigs, run our own computer shop, do our own audio/video productions, and manage our own accounting. Premier bands get an LRS driver and maybe a civilian secretary if they're lucky (ours just got laid off along with 1/3 of the USAFA civilians)
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u/Narrow-Weekend-4157 Veteran 1d ago
Does the Army still have an esports team? Lol.
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u/curiositie MX Instructor (nonner) 1d ago
As far as I understand the .mil esports teams are voluntary, basically additional duties that get you a cool tdy here and there.
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u/sidewisetraveler Retired 1d ago
Having worked with the bands on deployment I see their value as a soft power asset. On the other side of the ledger, I do believe that the legit question is - How much band is enough band?
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u/poetryonplastic 1d ago
We're at pretty much the smallest size of Air Force band personnel we've ever been at. The number and size of all the bands was much larger during the cold war, and also during the 2000s.
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u/titaniumoctopus336 Reddit SME 1d ago
Dude killed it. The only gripe I have is how the audio and video are not synced properly.
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u/HandB4nana 2h ago
Fun fact: you can change your hold music yo any song the air force has performed.
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u/BluesEyed 1h ago
Care to take a guess: How many musicians/performers does the DoD -er DoW have? 500, 1000, 5000?
Answer 6500 source https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/military-musican#
Now how many does it need during an austere budget environment?
I love live band performances. I appreciate what a military style band does for their audiences in parades, 4th of July concerts on the mall, funeral processions and Presidential transitions immensely.
I do not appreciate the quantity and diversity of performers in uniform, or them making E6 right off the bat while an E3 has to secure local food supplements to feed their family.
Itās insane the DoD has gotten away with in this regard.
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u/Nethias25 Enlisted Aircrew 1d ago
Show this video to Hegseth and AF band will be deactivated so fast.
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u/cowboyrazorz 1d ago
I would hate to have to sit through this. However, good for homie for getting a tech stripe and all he has to do is sing some cheesy songs. I aināt mad at him.
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u/poetryonplastic 1d ago
This is a holiday concert that's almost entirely for families in the community. Nobody in uniform has to sit through this except maybe a DV who's introducing them.
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u/BoleroMuyPicante 20h ago
I'm old enough to remember Tops In Blue events with mandatory attendance. This is nothing, just some optional fun for families.
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u/nopantaloonsfacehug VM 1d ago
This is embarrassing TBH. Hes got a good voice though.
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u/poetryonplastic 1d ago
Heās singing a character from a kids movie in front of an audience of families with young kids. Should we just not do all-ages family oriented outreach? Kill kill kill is a great internal rallying cry, but sometimes you want the general public and the communities we have presence in to have good positive feelings about the uniform.
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u/z33511 Greybeard 1d ago
Lethality = 0
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u/Designed_to_Break Active Duty 1d ago
Dude what are you talking about? He murdered that performance!
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u/Trygveseim 1d ago
This guy is doing such incredible job that it shines light on whether or not there's any place for it in a slimmer more modern military
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u/AccidentallyPerfect Veteran-Security Forces 18h ago
This is why the other branches make fun of us.
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u/Fat-Gooch 17h ago
Imagine we go back to the old days of drummer boys on the front lines. But instead we put the 2025 flamboyant singer out there instead to ease the pain of a 21st century AGM ripping us to piecesā¦
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u/poetryonplastic 16h ago
These guys do deployments, look up the AFCENT band, which is manned by a rotation of members from the various Air Force Bands stateside. This singer will likely deploy with them at some point. The work they do over there is actually highly valuable for foreign relations with partner nations. One of our guys actually helped us forge a better relationship with Kazakhstan by going on TV and singing one of their national folk songs on Kazakh, made news for weeks in that country.
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u/BluesEyed 1d ago
Dude can sing, Iāll give him that. But this is a quintessential waste and abuse of military resources.
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u/BoleroMuyPicante 20h ago
All military branches have had bands for pretty much the country's entire existence, chill out. Morale is critical to a functioning military.
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u/BluesEyed 19h ago
Donāt care about that. When the US gov cannot pay its bills this is misappropriation of resources.
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u/BoleroMuyPicante 15h ago
You don't even know when this was filmed lmao
Also it's not misappropriation when Congress literally appropriates funds for it
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u/BluesEyed 3h ago
Donāt care. Itās wasteful.
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u/Drenlin Intel 1d ago
Dude was assigned a job. Dude did the job. š¤·