Courtesy Photo | U.S. Army Sgt. Jason Smelser, Killeen, Texas, native, of the 1st Cavalry Division...... read more read more
LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division’s Task Force Patriot played host to the “Mother Of All Bands” on Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, June 24.
MOAB is a quartet formed five months ago from Regional Command-East’s 1st Cavalry Division band. MOAB’s mission is to travel Afghanistan and bring music to Soldiers in country.
“We like to play for troops,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Sam Carroll, an Austin, Texas native, and Army saxophone player, who learned to play bass just for the opportunity to perform with MOAB. “We want to go out as much as possible to all the places bands normally go to boost morale and give everyone a little taste of home.”
MOAB’s drummer, U.S. Army Sgt. Mike Purcell from Carrizo Springs, Texas, echoed Carroll’s sentiment.
“What we’re doing now is great. We’re going (from) FOB to FOB to FOB playing for the troops,” said Purcell. “I really enjoy it, and I’m kind of hoping we keep that same tempo up for the rest of the deployment.”
Lead guitarist U.S. Army Sgt. Jason Smelser from Killeen, Texas, and U.S. Army Spc. Chris Rettig, the lead vocalist, from Defiance, Ohio, round out the group. Rettig also plays guitar in the band, even though he is a master of the tuba.
“They were very good, all of them (are) multi-talented, and the singer was dynamite,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Keith Pruitt, TF Patriot’s brigade operations officer, from Canton, Texas. “For them to only be together five months and sound like that is very, very good.”
The band performed a show packed full of old, popular songs, including the Eagle’s “Hotel California” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.”
“I definitely liked the choice of music they played,” said U.S. Army Pfc. Hiram Walker, a Kotzebue, Alaska native. “It was a good morale booster. It’s been a while since we’ve seen anything like this. It was nice.”
MOAB mixed up their song selections a bit, including more contemporary hits such as Maroon 5’s “This Love,” Fall Out Boy’s “I Don’t Care,” and their own version of the Guns and Roses classic “Sweet Child of Mine.”
“I like the way we do ‘Sweet Child of Mine,’ because we do a reggae version of it. It’s really good,” said Purcell. “I like ‘Drive’ (by Incubus) and the Foo Fighters’ tune, ‘Hero.’ That’s always a good one.”
“We like ‘Hero’ by the Foo Fighters, because it’s kind of representative of all the people out here,” explained Carroll. “We’re all heroes out here; everybody says it back in the states, and we just like to show that so we close with it - every gig.”
Carroll said ultimately the band is trying to work up to a catalog of 300 songs. They know all soldiers have their own favorite songs, and their goal is to be able to perform them when requested.
All the members of MOAB are interested in actively pursuing musical careers outside the Army. The band members discussed staying together after leaving military service and continuing to build their following in the Austin, Texas, area under a new name.
| Date Taken: | 06.30.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.29.2011 17:29 |
| Story ID: | 72967 |
| Location: | LOGAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 347 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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