An Army Band Plays Its Final Salute; After Upholding 134-Year Tradition..., <i>The Washington Post, April 1, 1995 <p> The Washington Post, April 1, 1995 <br>Copyright 1995 The Washington Post <p>April 01, 1995, Saturday, Final Edition <br>SECTION: METRO; Pg. B03 <br>HEADLINE: An Army Band Plays Its Final Salute; After Upholding 134-Year Tradition, Fort Meade Musicians Given Downsizing Send-Off <p>BYLINE: David Leonhardt, Washington Post Staff Writer <p>The members of the First U.S. Army Band lingered for a few moments on the near-empty parade grounds at Fort Meade yesterday afternoon, trying to figure out what to do next. <p>Usually, the musicians march off their home turf with horns blaring and drums beating. Yesterday, they looked a little confused. <p>Minutes earlier, a general had pronounced the band inactive as a black sheet was placed over the drum. The band, which was founded during the Civil War and saw active duty in every war in the next century, had become the latest victim of military downsizing. <p>"We're no longer capable of marching," bandmaster David A. Ratliff said as his 35 musicians strolled off the Anne Arundel County parade grounds, chatting. <p>In front of 50 wind-whipped state flags, the 134-year-old band played military marches and the national anthem for nearly an hour before a drum was draped and a band from the nearby Aberdeen Proving Ground, an Army post, played "Auld Lang Syne." <p>More than 200 people came to Fort Meade for the ceremony. For many, the day was an opportunity to think about thousands of soldiers who have been transferred and civilians who have lost jobs as a result of military downsizing. <p>"As most of you are painfully aware, we've had to say goodbye to more people than we'd care to think about," Lt. Gen. John P. Otjen said. <p>The First U.S. Army Band has been on the chopping block for more than two years. The Army already has cut its bands from more than 700 after World War II to about 35 today, Ratliff said. The Fort Meade players will scatter to other Army bands around the world. <p>Some in the audience yesterday were veterans who had listened to the band during wars. Others became fans when the band and its offshoots -- a jazz ensemble, a brass ensemble and the rock group Camouflage -- toured the East Coast during the summers. <p>Their fans said the First U.S. Army Band's members managed something that few musicians and even fewer soldiers do: They didn't take themselves too seriously. <p>Ratliff has teased saxophonists and drummers about not being real musicians because they couldn't play in an orchestra. He has recommended that gap-toothed members of the band "floss with logging chains." And he made sure that long bus rides featured amateur comedy routines. <p>The result was a group that clearly enjoyed playing together and infected audiences with its enthusiasm. <p>Maj. Gen. James Fretterd, commander of the Maryland National Guard, first heard the band as a student at Bowie High School after World War II. <p>He entered the military in 1950 and has been listening to the band ever since. He came to Fort Meade to hear it for the last time yesterday. <p>"It's a sad moment for me," Fretterd said. "They're so stirring. They've done so much for my soul." <p>"With everyone downsizing, it was inevitable, I guess," said Edward Greene, who led the band for seven years in the 1980s and now spends autumn afternoons as a drummer for the Redskins Marching Band. "But it's still painful and sad."