Perryville will have very special guests coming to town this weekend.
The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band will perform a concert Sunday, October 16 at the Perry Park Center.
The concert is free to the public and will begin at 5:30 p.m.
The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band Band’s well-honed musical sensibilities powerfully synthesize the art of the beat, treatment of melody, reverence of the standard, and nuances of sound and time. It expands the contemporary canon of composition and dwells at the crossroads of jazz, hip hop, soul, and beyond. The band’s repertoire features original compositions and inventive orchestrations of jazz standards and contemporary classics.
The Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band was established for service during World War II. Soon after the war ended, the band was deactivated and sent to serve in Marine units in China and at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, Hawaii.
In 1952, the Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band was officially reactivated at Marine Corps Air Station Miami in support of the Korean Conflict, using Marine musicians returning from China and members of the Second Marine Aircraft Wing Band.
The Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band, as its title indicates, was under the Third Marine Aircraft Wing Command. When the Third Marine Aircraft Wing relocated to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange County, California in 1957, the band remained in Miami and was assigned to Marine Air Group 31.
The band stayed on the east coast until Marine Corps Air Station Miami relocated to Beaufort, South Carolina, and Marine Air Group 31 was deactivated. The musicians of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band were integrated in the Air Fleet Pacific Band, which was located at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California. This combined band was then officially named the Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band.
The Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro until 1997, when Naval Air Station Miramar was converted to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. From 1997 through 1999, all units relocated from Marine Corps Air Station El Toro to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, in San Diego California, as part of the base realignment process. The band reported to its current location at MCAS Miramar in January 1999.
The band traveled to Southwest Asia in February 1999 to and February 2000 to perform musical goodwill tours. During each of the tours, the band performed over forty concerts in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain for thousands of people including U.S. dignitaries and the region’s royal family members.
In addition to its deployment to China in WWII, the band’s combat history includes a 7-month deployment with the Third Marine Aircraft Wing in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm from October 1990 to April 1991.
During that deployment, the band served as a perimeter security machine gun platoon and saw service in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Emirate of Kuwait, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The band’s most recent deployment was in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom when the band returned to Kuwait in February 2003, for duty as a perimeter security machine gun platoon at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base.
Among the few musical duties the band was able to fulfill during the deployment, a concert at a palace of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Babylon, Iraq, featured the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band as the first American military to perform in Iraq.
The band returned to the United States on June 5, 2003.
All members of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing Band are combat trained Marines. Annual weapons qualifications ensure that Marine musicians are as proficient with weapons as they are with musical instruments.
With combat veterans in their ranks, they give full meaning to the term, “Marine Musicians”.
