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My first forth july in Berlin was on the the bicentennial 1976! For one full week my unit CSC 2/6 infantry practice for the parade grounds at Nc Nair Barracks! The parade ran down Clayallee with review stands around BB HQ ‘s and the Post Exchange. Just the day before the parade I was repairing a book shelf with a chisel? You guess right, I cut my hand and had a large badage. At formation on the 4th of July parade white gloves were to worn! I was excused, because one glove would not fit! I was off to get my camera and drop off my helmet and blue scarf in my locker. I took the double decker bus to U-bahn station next the parade route. Unfortunately at my location there was many protesters that started yelling at the start of the parade! So I made my way behind the Polizei line for protection, remember I was in Khakis and stood out like my sore hand!
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Without a doubt, the toughest duty day of the year for the 298th (that is, when we weren’t in the field). Inspections started at 0700, then off to the 4 Ring for the ceremony. First to hit the pavement, we provided pre-music for the ceremony then at 1000 when the ceremony kicked off, the march-on took place. That took about 35 minutes, including the Air Force contingent. Music or drum cadence going the entire time. The ceremony itself involved a Sound Off, Salute to the Union with cannonade, and speeches. At about noon when we marched off the 4 Ring, climbed aboard a bus and headed straight to the Harnack House where the USCOB had his garden party going. The band supported that activity by splitting up; some would play while others grabbed lunch and water, and then switched.
Following the Harnack House celebration, back to Andrews where the stage band (about 18 pieces) changed uniforms and headed over into East Berlin to the ambassador’s residence, again outdoors at a garden party. That gig lasted about 2 hours, then back to Andrews.
Change uniforms again to Class B’s and get ready to play the evening concert either at the duck pond at Dreipfuhl Park, or in 1983 my first year, at the Wannsee.
Setup all that sound gear, music stands, chairs, percussion, just about everything we owned. Sound check. Coordination with the battery for the inevitable “1812 Overture” which we always played, complete with cannon fire at certain parts of the music.
Tore all that stuff down in the dark, packed it up, and headed back to Andrews. Stored all that stuff away and usually, we went on blanket leave after that. In 1985, however, we were off on the duty train early the next morning to Holland to play a ceremony at the U.S. cemetery in Margraten.
By Independence Day, we had played so much in rehearsal and marching in the month of June (Allied Forces Day, the Brigade Review, and then Independence Day were the 3 biggies) that we pretty much had chops of steel. Almost 18 hours of playing that day, off and on, made for a very full Independence Day.
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Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc. -
I re-read your Band account and should have had a street map handy to follow it! I wrote a 4th of July account long ago that was published in the Berlin Observer May 1999 issue. (I joined after Clyde Cates found me online. I had given up looking to see if there was a Berlin veterans’ group just before it got online.) My 4th turned out to have gotten me out of a month of Spandau guard duty during a time when my sister and her future husband were visiting Berlin, so I didn’t have it as bad as I first thought.
-- rwr
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I re-read your Band account and should have had a street map handy to follow it! I wrote a 4th of July account long ago that was published in the Berlin Observer May 1999 issue. (I joined after Clyde Cates found me online. I had given up looking to see if there was a Berlin veterans’ group just before it got online.) My 4th turned out to have gotten me out of a month of Spandau guard duty during a time when my sister and her future husband were visiting Berlin, so I didn’t have it as bad as I first thought. 4th of July — 1969
Unfortunately, our archive of BUSMVA Observers doesn’t quite go that far back to May 1999. Will check out your linked article!
Webmaster
Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association, Inc.
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