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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

and 1 want you to let my driver take you back to your company, report to the Captain what you have
done and that you will be transferring to the band on Monday morning. You will be sitting 2" chair
d
trumpet in the band.”
Now al the risk of seeming a little bit arrogant or conceited, in looking back 1 can see that I would have
sl
probably been sealed in l chair in the trumpet section rather than 2nd, except that the highest ranking
st
member of the band, Tech Sergeant Ted Abbott, occupied 1 chair, and he also had been in the army for
about 30 years and enjoyed the highest non-commission rank of anyone in the band. Fie was a Tech
Sergeant, which is 3 stripes with 2 rockers underneath. Sergeant Abbott was discharged from the service
and took his retirement about 2 months after 1 joined the band and at about the time the entire band was
shipped and transferred to Ft. Jackson, South Carolina just outside Columbia.

So, in looking back, maybe it wasn’t that crazy to lake my trumpet with me when 1 enlisted after all. The
first performance of the band when we were transferred to Ft. Jackson, was to play at the Gubernatorial
Inauguration of the new Governor of South Carolina, Strom Thurman. After the ceremony, Governor
Thurman came through the band and shook hands with every one of us, none of us realizing after he had
served 2 terms as governor that he would continue to serve as the United Stales Senator in Washington
DC until he attained an age of almost 100. Had I known that at that time, I’m sure I would have been
very much impressed, but 1 was impressed to some extent anyway, getting to shake hands with the
Governor. Keep in mind that I was only about 3 months past my 18 111 birthday at that time, and had
already attained the rank of Corporal.

After warrant officer Thomas took me into the 5 Division Band, the following week he promoted my to
th
st
Private 1 Class and a month later promoted me to Corporal and about 2 months later added another
stripe to my sleeve, which made me a buck sergeant, and a few months later 1 got the rocker to go
underneath those three stripe, which made me a Staff Sergeant.

1 can recall riding the bus into Columbia on weekends with a bus load of other soldiers, many of who
had been in the army for years and years and years, and were in their 40’s and 50’s and maybe even I or
2 in his sixty’s, but I was generally the highest ranking non com on the bus, although I was just a baby
compared to most of the other soldiers on the bus. I’m sure a lot of them wondered “now how did this
guy ever get to be a Staff Sergeant”. Well, all kind of good things happen when you are a good trumpet
player.

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