drum and bugle corps
Flashing swords, brass buttons and drum rolls of a spring parade are just some of the many traditions that have marked over 150 years at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Strains of ‘Anchors Aweigh‘ and similar numbers played by the Naval Academy's midshipmen DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS set the cadence for the Brigade of Midshipmen, as they have since 1914.
This organization dates from l9l4 when the first appearance of the all-midshipman Drum and Bugle Corps was made. Midshipman R.W. Cary led his 16 members through a baseball game performance between St. John's college of Annapolis and the Naval Academy. The midshipmen quickly took to the idea of a D & B Corps as evidenced by the fact that the next year and for seven years thereafter, a Corps of approximately 59 men functioned to the delight of all hands.
The organization went out of existence in January 1922 when then Superintendent Henry B. Hilson deemed the Drum and Bugle Corps a "luxury not a necessity" and abolished the “Bugle squad." The Corps remained defunct until early 1926 when two midshipmen persuaded Admiral Louis M. Nulton and Captain Sinclair Gannon, then Superintendent and Commandant, to allow them and whatever volunteers they could muster to drum the midshipmen Drum and Bugle Corps back into shape. Reorganized with 45 men "30 of them being buglers and 15 of them being drummers", the Corps was a success and formally re-established in April 1926.
The succeeding years brought forth bigger and better Corps, each trying to outdo the one before. In the late '30s, according to one report, "it was an impressive sight to see the Drum and Bugle Corps, then known affectionately as ‘The Hell Cats,‘ swinging out on the field in full dress with the white cross-belts shining out against the blue of their uniforms, their precision marching and music providing the lift and rhythm to the tired feet of the regiment." And they were a cocky outfit, snappy on the field, comrades off it and ever proud of their organization.
As the rumblings of war grew loud in 1941, Admiral Hilson Brown then Superintendent decided that ‘the seriousness of the future life of midshipmen should be impressed upon the regiment. In keeping with his "strip-for-action bill", the Drum and Bugle Corps was jettisoned, and with it the splendor of dress parades. The byword was no longer pomp and the Drum and Bugle Corps was retired with such other extras as dressing for dinner, five-day weeks and new cars. By September 1945, the D & B Corps never a group to be down for long. was again in the process of being organized and ordered 25 tenor bugles, five baritones., 18 field drums, and two scotch drums.
The D & B Corps was effectively reinstated at the Naval Academy and was officially incorporated as a unit of the Brigade organization on March 16, 1946. In a brigade order announcing this event, the executive officer stated that the Corps’ duties were to "participate in Brigade functions" which were to "play the Brigade into Bancroft Hall at noon and evening meal formations and to supplement the Naval Academy Band in the following respects: in playing marching music for the Brigade prior to Chapel, in furnishing music for the Brigade parades and in furnishing music for the line of march when the Brigade is functioning as a unit away from the Naval Academy."
The renovated Corps was composed of some 49 members, all experienced players - many of whom were war veterans, and was acclaimed for the fine martial music they provided for midshipmen activities. The Naval Academy midshipmen Drum and Bugle Corps has continued to grow both in popularity and in size. Women first the D&B starting in 1976, and the current D&B boasts a membership of nearly 100 midshipmen musicians, performing over 200 times a year at football games, festivals, shows, parades, and military functions across the nation.