Chicagoans is a first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. This week’s Chicagoan is Lieutenant Geordie Kelly, 46, director, Navy Band Great Lakes.
Military bands do a lot of ceremonial things. The navy band in D.C., three times a week they do funerals with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Also, they go to the Pentagon and perform a whole ceremony when the joint chiefs of staff meet their counterparts from Japan or Brazil or wherever. The most difficult thing is: “Why can’t we sit down during this ceremony? Everyone else is sitting down.” If you’re standing at an admiral’s retirement ceremony for two or three hours, it can be quite a lot.
