Sgt Grit,
One of the best highlights in my career was a tour of duty in 1976 while serving my 3rd tour in Gitmo, Cuba. LCol Joe Cody, C.O. of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines forward deployed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba called on for volunteers from the battalion to form a Drum & Bugle Corps. I was a Plt Sgt in Fox Company when I answered his call. I was giving an audition to be the Drum Major and he wanted to see if I knew anything about bugles & drums. He threw me a set of shelter half poles and said give me a drum beat !! Then a bugle mouth piece and said buzz me a couple bugle calls. Since I did graduate Field Music School in 1962 – I passed and was hired on as Drum Major/ Director.
I was giving the pick of the Battalion to form a 13 man corps, ( six buglers, two side drums, two tenor drums, and a scotch base drum ). The Battalion Adjutant was dispatched to the School of Music in Little Creek, VA to get donated drums & bugles, and I started to work on a Drum Major's Baldric ( white cross over shoulder strap with the Bn. Honors upon it ), and a Mace. The Colonel gave me a silver sugar pot, broom stick, and silver dog chain which turned out to be quite elegant when put together with a Marine Emblem in the pot for the Mace.
The D&B Corps was carried on the roster as the Flame Section of H&S Company ( which no longer existed ), but we were the Colonel's body guard in the field when on alerts.
LCol Cody sent the Bn. Sgt's Maj, Matt Hardiman and myself TAD to the Jamaican Regiment so that I could learn the mace movements of quick & slow time marching. When all elements were acquired we did a month of drilling/ playing / and learning all sequences for Battalion parades & reviews/ mess nights/ guard mounts/ morning colors/ football games/ and hellcat reveilles. Our uniforms consisted of "sea-going blues for formal occasions, and utilities with white pith helmets for daily colors/ guard mounts. etc.
The Colonel held monthly parade reviews, and mess nights. We played at the Gitmo Officers Club, the Navy dependent school game half times, and often for Brown & Root construction sites at Gitmo.
The most memorable event happened when the Battalion was ordered back home to Camp Lejeune after several years on station. The day of departure Col Cody formed the Battalion at Camp Buckley, Battalion Colors up front, the Battalion Staff, followed by the Drum & Bugle Corps, and Company's H&S, F/ G/ and H in trace marching to the ship's docks at main side Guantanamo. The drums beating, Colors flying and the Marines with fixed bayonets made an unforgettable sight to all the naval personnel, dependents, and Cuban/ Jamaican workers on the base. When our ship arrived at Moorhead City, we were trucked to Camp Geiger, (Lejeune), and reformed outside the gate of the camp. The 8th Marine Regiment had the 1st & 3rd Battalions aligned along the road into camp as we marched in colors flying and drums beating. We had a final review and on the "Sound Off" the Drum & Bugle Corps honored our Colonel with the slow march "Globe & Laurel" and quick march to the Marine's Hymn. The D& B was disbanded, and the drums & bugles with all the accouterments of the Drum Major were retired to the 8th Marine Regimental Headquarters display case.
Jim Ogilvie
Gysgt USMC Ret
61-83
Saepius Exertus,
Semper Fidelis,
Fraternitas Aeternus