Courtesy Photo | After 37-and-a-half years of service in the Army, The United States Army Band...... read more read more
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - In the past few months, the United States Army Band Commander Col. Thomas Palmatier’s Brucker Hall office shelves and walls have become emptier and emptier.
This will be the final time Palmatier will empty his shelves and walls as a United States Army officer.
The retiring “Pershing’s Own” commander will pass the conductor’s baton and command duties to Col. Timothy Holtan Dec. 12. Palmatier’s 37-and-a-half years of service in the Army have yielded abundant and fruitful memories.
In a 20-minute sit-down interview with the Pentagram, the Ballston Spa, N.Y., native spoke of today’s Soldier-musicians, allowing musicians to be artistic and his approaching retirement.
Palmatier took command of The United States Army Band in August 2011 following tenure as the ninth commander and conductor of The U.S. Army Field Band. As he began his command as the ninth leader of “Pershing’s Own” on the Fort Myer portion of the base, he earned a unique distinction becoming the first officer to command both elite bands.
Influenced during his first assignment in TUSAB by Col. Eugene W. Allen, who served as commander from 1976 to 1990, Palmatier brought a command style that emphasized the point to let creative people create.
“Many times, I won’t know about a project until it happens,” Palmatier said about giving “Pershing’s Own” Soldiers artistic freedom. “But I’ve never said [an idea] is outside the parameters of the mission we’re attempting to achieve.
“As long as you stay in the left and right limits and as long as you’re doing the right thing, go for it,” the colonel continued. “You don’t have to come check with me. There are very creative people here, but they are very professional. There wasn’t a single time where I thought someone went outside the lines.”
While overseeing band involvement in projects like the Twilight Tattoos, the 1812 Overture, a musical petting zoo for children, Spirit of America pageants and a musical goodwill trip to the People’s Republic of China, Palmatier is impressed with the growth in Soldier integrity and musical talent not only at JBM-HH, but at installations throughout the continental United States.
“Comparing not just ‘Pershing’s Own’ but any Army musical unit today to what it was [in the 1970s] is just mind blowing,” he said. “Soldiers that are serving in the bands at Fort Riley and Fort Hood are today the quality of what you would have found in a special band 35 or 40 years ago. Consequently, the quality of the Soldiers here continues to go up and up and up. Not only in performing quality, the total package of the Soldier-musician [is higher].”
Palmatier enjoys using the phrase “community engagement” in place of the commonly-used “community outreach” phrase, and while parts of his 11-element musical ensemble traveled and performed concerts, clinics and hosted symposiums, the band’s audio-visual capacity was going above the high-tech plateau. The sequestration of 2013 enabled the band to still reach an audience with electronics. Palmatier was proud to distribute TUSAB music while face-to-face community engagement was briefly interrupted in the autumn of 2013.
“In the last year or two we’ve expanded our ability to do HD [high definition] video casts of everything that is done in Brucker Hall,” the colonel said. “We kind of redoubled our efforts there. Sequestration forced us to innovate with the thinking that if we can’t get to the people with the music, we could still produce great music and let them experience that [through online technology].”
As retirement approaches, Palmatier will have nothing to do with inactivity. As he plants roots in Norfolk, Va., the “Pershing’s Own’s” boss plans to continue to conduct during musical clinics and enjoy his family, including his two grandchildren.
| Date Taken: | 12.11.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 12.15.2014 15:18 |
| Story ID: | 150331 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US |
| Hometown: | BALLSTON SPA, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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