Music helped me to cope with going TDY temporary duty as crew chief on the KC135 Tanker, filling the distant times I was away from my family. Separation from my family was especially hard while in Alaska and also stationed on Okinawa in the eighties. Music helped me endure and escape. Music allows me a way to let my aggressions out on stage. Still today, I am using music to as a way to connect with people and to battle depression and anxiety.

During my time in the Army, I utilized music to help make it through the difficult times. Just listening to music would help, but I also played music for the other soldiers. During Desert Storm 1990/1991, I requested permission from the Commander thru the Chaplain to take two guitars to help keep the Soldiers morale up. The Commander said only military equipment was authorized to be sent to Saudi Arabia during the conflict….To me, it was very important to keep the soldiers morale up during this deployment, there was a lot of unknown and a lot of fear for the soldiers. I made the decision to load the guitars. This was very unusual for me, I had always respected my Commanders and followed orders. I knew the power of music during hard times and decided to chance it. As it turned out myself and another soldier ended up playing music for the American soldiers as well as the soldier from our Allied Countries. It made our time there a little easier and helped everyone get through the deployment. Remember Bob Hope! He devoted his life to entertainment/music for the soldiers during deployments.

Again in 2010/2011 Iraqi Freedom, during a deployment to Bagdad, I utilized the power of music to entertain the young soldiers and to keep their spirits up. I provided free guitar lessons to a few soldiers. I found guitars for sale by soldiers from earlier deployments that were scheduled to end their tour of duty. Seems like a lot of soldiers wanted a guitar. There were several other soldiers teaching and learning guitar. For the many soldiers that didn’t play music they always enjoyed hearing a song played and singing along.