Episode 12 - Dr. Jeananne Nichols

Episode 12 features Dr. Jeananne Nichols, Music Education professor, guest conductor, historian, and narrative researcher based in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. We talk with Jeananne about her research with the Women in the Air Force band, interpreting history, confronting problematic musical pasts, and the ultimate band redemption story.

To learn more about Jeananne, and the resources she recommended, check out the links below!

Dr. Jeananne Nichols - UIUC
Women in the Air Force Band
Women’s Air Force Band Kennedy Center Performance
Jill Sullivan - Bands of Sisters
Jill Sullivan - Women’s Bands in America
The United States Air Force Band Diamond Edition (download available)
Sherrie Tucker - Swing Shift

Listen to this episode!

Full Transcript

Carrie Blosser 0:01

Welcome to Diversify the Stand, the resource centered around listening, learning and promoting diverse musical voices in music, through our podcast, website, commissioning projects, and more. I'm Carrie Blosser.

Ashley Killam 0:15

And I'm Ashley Killam. Join us on our journey as we speak with composers, creators, performers, historians and music educators about the topics important to them, and musics betterment.

Our next guest is actually a former professor of mine. Dr. Jeananne Nichols is an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She's a guest conductor, a clinician, a historian, a narrative researcher, and one of my absolute favorite professors and people. Jeananne's research centers around musical experiences with incarcerated youth, the Woman's Air Force band, otherwise known as the WAF band, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in school music. So welcome, Dr. Nichols.

Jeananne Nichols 1:07

Thank you so much, Ashley, it is a real privilege to be with you both today. Thank you so much for the invitation to be a part of your podcast.

Carrie Blosser 1:16

Well, I know I'm super excited that you're here and so is Ashley, so thank you, again, for joining us. We would love to jump right in and talk a little bit about how you got into researching and telling historical stories

Jeananne Nichols 1:30

Thanks. So the best way to I guess to start this story, is to think of the kind of work that I have been pursuing for some time now probably begins with a moment in my graduate study, where I encountered a really powerful work by an educational researcher, his name is Tom Barone. And in this work he, he was looking at arts programs in a school in North Carolina. And to go about discussing this, he just told a simple story about sitting at of McDonald's with a young person that he had met in the course of that study, and asking and talking with this young person and just relaying this interview, about what, what this what this kid had to say about schooling and how it and the role that it played in his life. And Barone did it was such direct language in such a simple way, but had picked such a powerful story that his ideas about who is actually at risk, when we talk about at risk students, and the role of the arts in their lives, like what do we really mean by that? That it had such an immediacy, and such an emotional power, that I was just immediately captured by that, and I had already, I was already kind of a person that likes to tell stories, and probably talk way too long than I should, I am sorry, you're gonna do a lot of editing with this. And so the story of Billy Charles, was something that just stuck to me for lack of a better way to describe it. And, and Barone actually wrote that there that a lot of what the power of stories and the power they have to stick to you. And I want to so I want to start with this idea.

And that is how I got involved thinking as a researcher about music and music education, and the kinds of stories that stick to us. And then that moved into this whole realm of, for instance, why do they stick and why do they have lasting power? And then what do they tell us about us? And so think about often times in your own life when something happens to you. And that experience, you tell yourself a story about yourself through that experience? Whether, I'm just working off the top of my head, but think about like, you know, a relationship that ends? How do you construct yourself, the story, you tell yourself about the end of that relationship? that then becomes a part of how you develop as a person. Well, those stories have the same power with what we choose, and how we interpret them for things like professions and schools and communities and like, what stories stick to us, why they stick to us, and who has the power to decide the story that we're all going to accept? What happens if you challenge the stories that are told about our profession or our community? And that was and so when I began so my, my the first part of my work Ashley made reference in introduction to be an interested in the experiences about LGBTQ+ students. It was at the time that I was first embarking on this work. We had kind of this I think of it as, like a whitewashed understanding of who our students were, we just sort of like there's our students. And we didn't think in the ways that we think today about all the various identities that our students are bringing with them into the classroom. And for me, that started a real thought about how is music education challenged, and shaped, if we begin to think about the selves that the students bring, when they are in our classrooms, now, that was at this point 20 years ago. And since then, there's been a large number of research that that's looked at all kinds of things. And we think differently now about that. So I'm not saying that we've got it done. I'm not saying that we have all the answers. I'm not saying that we don't have a long way to go. But I do see a significant change in music education's understanding that, that students bring a self to the classroom. And that self is, is an intersection of a number of identities, be it race, sexual identity, cultural identities, gender identities, I mean, just so many, many, many different things. And I've only looked at a small part of that.

So when it comes to history, think for a moment that the history we know about ourselves is the history that we have thought was fit to preserve. So it's another example of the stories that we've chosen to preserve and tell us, tell ourselves about ourselves. In my own, so I got involved with history, one, because I love hearing the stories of where we come from, and the people who made us and a recognition of how our history shapes our current context, to not know your history, is to wake up in the morning, and think that all of a sudden, we're the first people who have ever fill in the blank. And the more I studied the history, the more I begin to understand how cyclical the human experience is. And so to understand where you've come from helps you thoroughly understand where you are in the present moment. So I got involved with, I had a colleague at Arizona State University, one of my professors who had back, you know, long time ago, had been basically sort of run across a set of stories about women's military bands during World War Two, I had been in the music education as a band, music education profession as a band director, for some time, and my story of band in my head was of military bands and college bands. And they were, and that was it. That was all I knew about my own band history and my impression as a young person growing up, I only knew of five women. When I when I was in high school, I could name exactly five women that were band directors in the state of Georgia that I had encounters with. So when I went to pursue a career, as a music educator specializing in band, I thought I was alone. I mean, I was just one of the very, very few. And in some ways I was and I had no understanding of the history that had preceded that moment, one that had created the conditions where there were only five women, I could name on the podium. And, but also, my own interior construction of conducting as something that a man did. That that is what my ninth grade self thought. And only men led bands, because that's all I had ever known except for those few women, which I really wanted to be a part of. But had I known and understood a much broader story of band, because we had seen fit to save, produce and present those stories, then it would have been a very different place. So we have a I have my professor that is like, Hey, you know, there were these fans in World War Two, and they were led by women and they had, you know, significant responsibilities in fundraising and in helping with both troop morale and in raising awareness amongst, you know, the public, and here they all are, and I was just sort of blown away and I really wanted to be a, I want to help with that. I want to tell the story of a band profession that is so uplifting to me. And it was personal, very personal. So she said well, actually there there is a band that doesn't fit in my current paradigm of looking at World War Two bands. And I suppose I'll go ahead and name her. That's Jill Sullivan. She's written a number of books and I hope they'll be on a list that will provide as a part of this. And Jill handed me a picture of women arranged, arranged in a beautiful concert formation that were in Airforce uniforms. And she said, this band, you know, was after the World War Two era, this is in the 1950s. And you know, somebody needs to do something with them. And I'm not sure what Jill expected when she handed me the picture and said, somebody means to need to do something with them. But I don't think she imagined that I would spend the next 15 to, you know, 15 years doing something which has become sort of an all consuming passion of mine. And I ran with what she offered. And I tracked down some members that were in Las Vegas, which, I was in, at the time, I was in Tempe. And you know, Las Vegas wasn't that far. And I mean, and it's, hey, it's Las Vegas, who doesn't want to go. And so I placed a couple of cold phone calls and found a couple of members here that were willing to talk with me and I traveled to Nevada and, and started listening to their stories. And to say that their stories stuck to me is an understatement.

So the WAF band or the Women of, Women in the Air Force is actually the official Air Force title for WAF, Women in the Air Force. That band similar to the World War Two counterparts was created in order to provide ceremonial functions and play public concerts. They began in support of the WAF contingent, the auxiliary units of women that were associated with the Air Force. But the Air Force quickly realized what a powerful recruiting and public relations tool that the weapon could be. And eventually, they were set as an a special band within the Air Force system, and sent out all over the country, including Alaska and Puerto Rico, they're very proud of those trips, both to entertain the troops, but then also to promote the Air Force itself. But because of where and the time that they they were, you know, there in the 1950s, it's an era that I described as a post-Rosie, pre-Roe v. Wade era. We are in serious transition time of how women are understood and socially constructed. We have learned through World War Two of the contributions of women and their, their ability to participate in the economy. They were, you know, there were a number of things that happened because of war time where women, it wasn't so much that the country learned, I think that women learned about themselves, because they had been constructed as you know, the domestic goddess, but in World War Two, they were tasked with moving out of hearth and home and into airplane manufacturing and military service and other important significant ways. And women at the end of the war just really weren't willing to narrow their focus again. So there started a time in our country of sort of a, think of them as crossmens where there is the the understandable desire to nest in peace and comfort. And, you know, get married and have families. I mean, it's very much a heterosexual white kind of move to the suburbs, put up your white picket fence and buy all the latest consumer conveniences. I mean, just think, you know, think about what we think about with the 50s.

But that is a cross sections with a number of things going on, where women are not necessarily wanting to be there. That is, that is not the only option they wish to take. It isn't that some women didn't find that appealing. It said that not all women found that appealing, and they wanted different options. And so the WAF band exists in sort of these cross currents. And America as a country because my this particular research obviously is very wrapped up in American history, American civil and social understandings. And America is having a conversation about the role of women. It's also having other conversations at the same time and I don't want to allied them there are conversations 1953 Brown versus Board of Education. We are we are talking a great deal about African American students in schools and equality, racial equality. And an injustice, political injustice, just a number of things are going on. And then additionally, this is also a time when under the surface there is a struggle for for gay rights but it isn't, it isn't speaking its name yet it's it's still very much on the surface. But there are a number of groups that are wrestling with this understanding of America's The Bright Promised Land following World War Two with their experience and and so I'm focused on what happened to women during this time. But it is not the only thing going on in the 1950s. Our image of happy days is the 1950s is seriously challenged by another undercurrent of fear.

This is also the time of the McCarthy hearings where the label of communist is used in order to purge our government of those that were not seen as sufficiently loyal to the current dogma of the day. So there's a lot going on. So the band, you know, performs from 19-, Well, they're they're formed in 1949. They are officially chartered as an Air Force band, they sort of exists in kind of a volunteer state needs. They are chartered in 1951. And then they exist for the next 10 years. Until they are disbanded.

Ashley Killam 16:18

And it just shows I mean, one of my questions initially to you was, how does this influence present and future generations. When you're finding an entire history that's not talked about, that influences everything. And how much work we have to do to show, I mean, other stories and other views and show more than just that one, like white centered frame?

Jeananne Nichols 16:41

Yeah. So I think about the mission of your work and the podcast and this idea of how are you going to diversify your stand? Right. And I, I think about it, and I don't want to tie this to some work that I'm currently undertaking at my own university, with a taskforce that's been impaneled to take a look at our core courses and the ways in which they promote a singular vision of music. And one of the things that one of my colleagues said, as in the early stages of this taskforce work was, it's not the person that's the problem. It's the pedestal. And it has become something that has stuck with me, as I have, either when I if I'm looking at history, or perhaps I'm even thinking about what gets included in the course I'm teaching. So I at the university, I teach courses in instrumental music, music teaching, research methods, and it has caused me every single moment to stop and think about what is the pedestal that I've, I'm promoting. It's not the person, it is not that I have some particular antipathy to Holst, or Sousa or the incredible men who have made me, who have taught me and have have enabled for me a path to be here today. Like I have had a number of fine teachers who happened to be men that I am indebted to for what they taught me about myself and my profession. It's not it's not maleness, it's not these other things. It's the pedestal upon which they are placed. And so when I think about how do I diversify my stand, I think about, well, the stand. I think about, you know, what is it that I'm saying about this? And so, my commitment, whether it's in, you know, syllabi, or in a history that I write, or, or that I'm investigating, rather, or the stories that I'm working on as a part of the research, I question, myself, and how I accept or do not accept that pedestal for those stories, how do I hold them up? And in what ways? And is there a way in which we hold up stories that we do not leave them as the only defining story? That it's not only is it not the only story, it's certainly not the best story. There is no the best. And that every time we play something on a pedestal, and say to folks, this is nothing. Think about all the things we've left out, rather than this is a thing.

In fact, there's a dialogue, a conversation that goes on a lot in history, and it's the move away from On the master narrative. There are historical facts. And then there is the interpretation of those facts. So let me give you an example. I was reading a news article this week, they called it the forensic truth. There is forensic truth, meaning that a number of eyewitnesses can attest that a thing happened.

So why don't we just take recent events, there is a historical forensic truth that our Capitol experienced a riot, and that people overran and invaded the US Capitol. The interpretation of those of it, what it meant, and for some people, whether it happened at all and who was responsible. That is what has become what we're chewing over today, in our media and with each other. Well, what did that mean? And what does it say? And we're in a time, we are literally constructing the story of the Capitol riots after the fact. In fact, some of your listeners might even take issue with me using the word riot. But we can. So the forensic truth is that a group of people did do this thing. But we're constructing the story of that, following that as to what we're going to tell ourselves about it. And what will be in the history books, and that, which is why you have multiple histories on say, I don't know, Franklin Roosevelt, because depending on in whose hands that history is, there's an interpretation of that.

So two thoughts to follow that one of which is just because we can interpret history doesn't mean that we can question the facts, or the forensic truth of that history. There are things that actually happened. Secondly, for us, in the music performance field, in the music education profession, all of all of those of us that are, that are that are in music, we have a responsibility to be thoughtful, and, and, and proceed reverently with the interpretations that, and understand that there's like a difference there is that we have so we have artworks from a number of different traditions. Our interpretations of those artworks, what we say they say, we write and rewrite those interpretations and new but it doesn't, we have to be careful that we don't use our freedom, our liberty, our opportunity in interpreting what we receive from the past, to erase that past. And so that has, like, you know, a number of ramifications. It's hard for us. We as, as humans, don't know what to do, or how to confront problematic things in our past. And so most of the time, we just don't want to look at them.

So when I move this into my thinking, as a teacher, Professor in my classes, and I share with students origin stories of some of the repertoire that they play, they're placed in a place where they must make a decision based on their own personal set of values. So I'm gonna give you an example. A good bit of the American Songbook comes to us from blackface minstrelsy, there's been a number of those things written because the American band has been part and parcel of just about most everything that is entertainment in our country. We in our library of materials, or in our libraries have music that is drawn from music from blackface minstrelsy, and I have my own opinions about what I believe should happen with that music. And we choose not to perform it for myself. Yet, I also look at the work of other black artists who are choosing to reclaim some of that music and redeploy it in different ways. And I also wish to support that. So I'm thinking about Rianna Giddens and the Carolina Chocolate Drops and other groups that are looking again at African American music. And it might have been originally used in one way, but it's been reclaimed and repurposed for more liberatory agenda, if you will. And so, we want to allow our understanding of the past to inform our choices in the present. And we have to not ignore them. And we have, we don't want to put them in a drawer and we don't want to shelve them, we have to face them. And so I'm kind of, you know, I'm sort of mixing thematic areas, obviously, I've been very interested in women's history, but I'm now moving more towards like, our understanding of the ways in which race is implicated, and what we have done in our work as conductors and teachers and folks in this profession. But we need to start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. And we need to enter into into an entire period of being horribly uncomfortable. Because until we're willing to be uncomfortable with our past, then we will not be will soft pedal any kind of change. And so I'm experiencing this, when I'm working on this task force with my university, I experienced this every time I put together a syllabi for students, with every conversation I have with my students in class, or repertoire that I choose for any particular band that I'm up for, you know, conducting. We have to learn in our profession, as it is currently constructed, is largely white, we have got to learn how to be uncomfortable.

Ashley Killam 26:05

This is something we talked with Dr. Mrs. about too when we had our pre interview with her in the sense of how do you have a conversation with students and talking to classes, or parents or faculty having those tough conversations and how to balance, you know, playing this music and, you know, really learning where it comes from, and your morals. And she was mentioning a piece that the one of the chamber groups played and how they didn't play the last movement because of what she learned about it, how she just had a flat out talk about, you know, this is the piece, this is why we're not doing it. And I think she ended up getting the composer to read.

Jeananne Nichols 26:47

The story where she contacted the composer, but that's just, and then the composer responded warmly, and made the changes. Like oh, my gosh, I didn't know and, and then immediately moved to correct it. And I think there, it's like, maybe I add to like, not only do we have to be uncomfortable, but we also need to be generous in, in believing that if folks have given an opportunity, we'd be glad to make some fixes. You know, like instead of I don't remember, the composer, it isn't material at the moment, but instead of just assuming that the composer intended something harmful, she returned to the composer and said, we have something that creates harm here. Let's try to fix it. And And could you would you be willing and I think she gave, you know, had a couple of suggestions. And eventually, you know, they settled on this one.

Carrie Blosser 27:42

So we wanted to talk a little bit. We did definitely want to ask a little bit about the WAF reunion, and how like that is critical, like the musicians like in the future.

Jeananne Nichols 27:55

The WAF band reunion, and the reason I bring it up, and the reason I think it is important, it has its back to that idea of the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, or the stories we allow others to tell about ourselves. So in 19-, I don't remember the year, I think it was 1998. Oh, so the WAF band ended in 1961. And then a little over 30 years passed. And one of the members decided that it was time to have a reunion. The band we understand only lasted like 10 years, and roughly 200-and I think it's 247 was the final tally of women passed through the organization. And it's 10 years. And in the late 90s a woman decided, one of the one of the band members decided it was time to have a reunion. This group, they had, they hadn't really been in contact. And so you know a lot of military units find ways to stay in touch, you know, you hear about like World War Two units or others that are Vietnam units that continued to stay in touch, they know their members. The WAF band hadn't done this. And the and the reasoning has to do with a really dark, disturbing part of their story. So that's to where I will turn my attention at this moment. So in 19-, around 1960 and getting into 1960, the Air Force was beginning to lose its enthusiasm for women in the ranks and had, so where the 50s would have been marked by some expansion of the WAF, the military as a whole was moving towards women, just women serving, there were no more auxiliary units, no more WAF, WAVES, WAC, none of that they would just be incorporated into the regular ranks, if you will. And historians look back at that time with the Air Force also noted that there was a certain amount of interest in the Air Force of not only getting rid of the WAF, but the women that they would continue to include in their ranks, they would actually try to pull that number way, way back. For reasons that are, as you can, you know, I'm sure that we can imagine and too lengthy to go into here.

So the WAF ban had been obviously, their, one of their original charges was to recruit. Well, they don't really want the WAF band to be recruiting women anymore. The Air Force, you know, felt like what they provided in terms of public relations, that, you know, they wanted to move in a different direction, they just didn't want women if you will, to be part of the faces that were shown to the public, because they really were moving in a different direction and didn't see how women could contribute. So the Air Force at this time is making a move away from, or is not, not moving away from, but they are becoming the like, this is when America moves into, like missile defense. So this becomes where a lot of the money is going to so think Cuban Missile Crisis, think, you know, a number of things like that. So we're pouring our dollars into into missile defense and away from airplanes and the delivery of munitions by plane. It isn't that it's obviously not totally eliminated. But that's just not where the Air Force was focused in developing.

Okay. And so budgetary wise, they wanted to in their support the WAF band that was going on at the same time. So the captain and probably the Air Force would have ended the WAF like back in 1958-57. Based on that reasoning, alone. Think monetary, different mission, that kind of thing that would have ended before. But evidently, the captain had built enough of a network and staying power supporters that that the airforce wasn't quite ready to get rid of the WAF band. And they kept on going. They move, you know, and the they were originally state stationed in Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, which is the induction center, it still is, it's where everyone goes, if you're going to join the Air Force, that's, you know, where basic training happens. And that's where the WAF had been left and had been stationed. And so she figured out how to get them stationed at Norton Air Force Base, and continue their mission as a special band with the Air Force and did enough that the Air Force continued to want to keep them around. But by about 1960, some of that goodwill had run out.

At the same time, the WAF band for, and causality is hard for me to parse here. And so I'm still, you know, I'm still trying to figure it out. But in a series of communications, where the Air Force says, okay, the duties and responsibilities of the weapon are going to be severely severely limited. So you're not, you can't, you're not gonna keep the same type of expansive touring schedule that you used to have, everything has to be cleared through a central office, and only these types of duties will be, you know, available. And so for like, most of '60 and '61, the web band is pretty much kind of like, their most of their work was in San Bernardino, they really weren't allowed to go out and do. They did some, I mean, they were traveling to different military bases, but this far flung kind of thing that they had been doing was curtailed. Um, and money, they, you know, they didn't have the budget, they didn't have the support. And so there was already this Air Force, kind of like we're pulling the rollback, that kind of happens first, then the Office of Special Investigations in the Air Force grows interested in reports that had been filed almost a year earlier, connected with a woman in the band, who was a lesbian, and that there had been some complaints registered about that.

So you need to understand that at the time, we are not, we aren't in anywhere near what eventually becomes like Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And then the further you know, changes that came to the military. If you were classified as a homosexual by the, by the military, for the most part, that is a quick ticket out the door. The Office of Special Investigations picked that moment when the weapon was already in a place of shrinking influence and travel, to launch a wholesale investigation into the entire band, bringing numbers in one by one, interrogating them sometimes for days, and they would be encouraged to name names of known lesbians in the group and it was it had a McCarthy Like feeling to it, though, and they begin discharging numbers of the band in waves. So the band was originally around that at the time when this began, I think there were like, 50-52 members, when the OSI investigations ended, there were around 19 members. So they, they dismissed almost two thirds of the group. And they dismissed them in two waves, the largest wave would be women that were dismissed for associating with known homosexuals. Now, can you imagine, you're in a traveling military band? Who else are you going to associate with? So they're incredibly easy case to make, if you will? And then they saved the last wave for members who either admitted to being a lesbian or there was what the Air Force determined was proof enough.

So two waves, there was no person untouched by this, this and it? I mean, it makes and I hope that it just it's shocking to those who would listen to this, oh, my God, why we would do this. But actually, this is kind of commonplace. Where military units were investigated and purged of problems, what makes this particular one so stark, is one the degree of destruction, the what how impacted the unit. And then secondly, just before it started, the weapon had been notified that they were going to be disbanded for budgetary reasons. So the Air Force had already told them that they were not going to continue as a unit that the band would be disbanded. But they want the investigation anyway. And that then begins, you know, to, for us to ask why, and I am of the opinion, and it is my opinion, that the reason the investigation was done in this way at this time, was in order to rob the captain of the ability to advocate for the band, they must have, you know, in other words, it destroyed the band in the eyes of anyone who had any power to save it. And the women who were dismissed during that time, the level of bitterness and heartache, they they committed to the Air Force at the idea of serving their country, and in many ways their country had punished them. And many of the I mean, the the accuracy or justness of these accusations, I won't dignify it to get into I just won't. But I am, I feel very free to say that it that the investigation really had nothing to do with the actual truth of anything.

And so many of these women just, they left, and I can think of several interviews with them where they were like I, I never admitted to being in the Air Force. I didn't want anyone to know, I was so ashamed. And so when I saw I referenced back to this idea of like, the stories you tell about her suppress, right, and so the story they left the Air Force with those that were in there at the final day is that that elicit they had nothing to contribute to that they

Carrie Blosser 38:26

were

Jeananne Nichols 38:26

and that their service was not needed, that they were perverted. They were you know, questionable, they weren't worthy of service, they were not worthy to serve. And that was sort of the, much of the narrative that accompanied many of the women who, who left and and it was just I have to say no, because I want to talk about them all was like for those that were put out, there was a burden to carry. But for those who persisted until the end, as it remained, there was also a burden to carry. And so they went their own ways. And it was too painful for many of them to engage with for a number of times. And like I said, One woman said, she just she went home, and she never would admit that she'd ever been in the Air Force. So wondered, why does she'd buy this, you know, experience. So, fast forward 30 years. And one of the one of the women was like, you know, we need to get together. We need we need to, we need to meet up in reunion. And so they started gathering as much information and of course, at this time, like, you're still in this habit of like women are still going by their maiden names. They're still I mean, sorry, women are going by their married names there. There is no internet, you know, to search for people, you know how to do this. But as they got started trying to find each other so what they started doing was combining Christmas lists. So people had sent Christmas cards to different people at different times, you know, and so they started with that core group and then they begin to draw upon other resources that were available to them to find them. And finally they you know, the internet. And to be able to do web searching came and they were able to find new members and, and members were in reunion will talk with tears in their eyes about the day that phone call came or the letter came, or the email arrived, where they say, Hey, are you a member of the WAF band, and they started meeting in reunion and they met in reunion every single year from from then until just a couple of years ago.

And there are lots of redemptive things about their reunion activities, and one of which is that they were just damned to play, they were gonna play, they were a band, they wanted to be a band. And they made themselves a band again, and they looked to there were a number of their individual members who had gone on to pursue careers as school music educators, band directors, a number and so they called upon them to serve as conductors. The captain sadly had passed away in 1999, she died of Alzheimer's and knew, I think, I believe if I understood this correctly, she knew that they had found each other again, or were in the process of finding each other again. But she was never able to come back and sort of connect with the band that by the time all this was happening, she was in a nursing home and was not doing very well. But the members knew where she was. And several of them reached out to her and visited her at towards the end but she was never able to step back in her role in that way.

So other members stepped up. And one of, and they met in different cities, just kind of like we did just do like different cities and members would take turns hosting. And they would get together for a week and spend time with each other. And I got involved with them with working in these concerts right around 2008 in Dayton, Ohio. And so, by that time, I was involved with a project. And I showed up and the women that I had gotten to know that we're members that lived in Las Vegas helped facilitate an introduction. And so I got a chance to be with them in reunion. And then they decided that it was really handy to know someone at the time, I was a band director at Olivet college, and they decided, you know, that was really handy to have someone that actually had access to instruments and a library and a few other things. So they decided, you know, we found a mutually beneficial arrangement. And so I did the interviews and did a lot of research work and got to know them very, very well in ways that you can't just do in a one week kind of thing. And, in return was glad to help and step up in ways professional for them when they needed it.

Two important things that have happened in reunion that I wanted to comment on before I leave this story, one of which is that midway through, I think it was in the early 2000s, when the Women Memorial Service Building was opened on the grounds of Arlington the WAF band was invited to be a part of those opening ceremonies. And as part of being in Washington DC, they were invited to return to the Air Force band hangar. And to sit in with the Air Force band and play with them, it was part of a rehearsal. And the the members described the sense of sort of feeling that that gesture, you know, a lot of feeling that the Air Force was willing to claim them again, and to be able to sit in the seats that you know, in a different world where they weren't segregated by gender, but they would have been sitting in as a special band in the Air Force like the WAFband was and then to it, they love, they light up when they meet another, particularly military bandswoman and want to tell them all about their story, but there is a very special place in their heart for any Air Force Bandswoman and and the sense that their legacy continues. They're very much part of that.

The last thing about reunions that I wanted to mention is that in their final year, they they had gotten you know now a good number of the women are in their 80s and traveling is very difficult as you can imagine now the pandemic it's just out of the question that they, through the through the leadership and service of Jan Durga, who is now retired from the Air Force, she was a tuba player with Air Force band. She was able to facilitate a return to DC for the for the WAF band and using in the air and once again thank you for the to the Air Force band. Using sort of some of the resources and connections that Air Force band had available they were able to arrange a concert for the WAF band to play on the Millenniums Stage at the Kennedy Center. And there's a particular resonance with that because Kennedy, the last one, one of the last official duties of the WAF band, was to march in john F. Kennedy's inaugural inaugural parade. So then to return and say their farewells on a national stage named for Kennedy had a particular sort of poetic resonance in that. And one of the things that has stayed with me from the experience of being a part of that performance in the Kennedy is the WAF band president speaking at their banquet The next night, she said, you know, the last time we were associated with Kennedy, they told us when to go home. And this time, we're saying when we're going home.

And so the WAF band met in reunion, almost twice as long. And they performed and they they upheld their mission, as it was originally charged to be a face. They, you can tell them to go home, you can try. But they were determined to persist in their mission, representing the Women in the Air Force. And I think of it now, particularly in our current climate, about the importance of doing your duty, and of, of serving, when everyone around you may be telling you to go home. That our country, that America is a place that's worthy of this loyalty, of this level of service. I have learned so much from being with them over the last 15 years. They reclaim the WAF band story as a story of defeat and shame and dishonor, and transformed that story into one of service to the very, you know, the very branches of service that told them they were not worthy. They transform their story and said, Yes, we are, and they continue to inspire the rest of us to consider a new with each time how we are included as part of that call to service for our country.

Ashley Killam 47:00

What a redemption story. That's the ultimate redemption story right here.

Unknown Speaker 47:04

That's insane.

Carrie Blosser 47:07

More information about Jeananne, her research, and the resources that she shared with us today are available in the podcast description, and also on our website.

Ashley Killam 47:18

Thank you so much for listening to Diversify the Stand. I am Ashley.

Carrie Blosser 47:23

And I'm Carrie. If you'd like to support us and our projects, check out our Patreon www.patreon.com/diversify_the_stand. Also, the link is in our podcast description.

Ashley Killam 47:38

And a huge thank you to Trevor Weston and Whitney George, for allowing us to use their compositions in our podcast. The musical introduction is Trevor's trumpet duet Fanfare for Changes, and the ending music is Whitney's Incantations for trumpet and piano. Both composers websites are also listed in the description.

Carrie Blosser 47:57

Until next time, what's on your stand?