A couple of weeks ago, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows High School was rockin’! On February 5, the school hosted a performance by a special group of musicians.
The group was the 34th Army Band's music performance team named, “Scrap Metal”. Scrap Metal is a New Orleans style brass ensemble that is in high demand for military and civilian functions alike. The team is made up of a mix of wind instruments, vocals, and a rhythm-section group. Performing for Military and civilian functions, a typical show provides the audience with engaging music and entertainment.
The performance was arranged by High School Band Director Kent Wesselink. One could say that Wesselink has an ‘in’ with the group- He’s the commander of the 34th Army Band. Stationed in Fairfield, the 34th Army Band is the official military band for the State of Iowa. Comprised of citizen-soldiers from across Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Missouri, band members assemble for one weekend per month plus fifteen additional days throughout the year to train and to perform.
Wesselink explained, “Some of my responsibilities as the Commander of the 34th Army Band are to assemble, rehearse, resource, provide direction, and assign performances to our music teams. The “Scrap Metal” music performance team was assigned to perform in Northwest Iowa schools during the week of January 31st through February 4th. The route they would be traveling passed through Clarion and they had time in their schedule to fit in a final performance for the week. I made the arrangements for the performance with Paul Hansch (HS Principal) and my team leaders took it from there.”
According to Staff Sergeant Eric Newman, performances like the one at CGD allow Iowa residents to have positive interaction with the Iowa National Guard. “We play some songs where people know the words. We play covers of pop tunes, some rock tunes and some that are original,” Newman said. “We invite everybody else to have some fun too,” he added, when commenting on the public mission of the band. “We get to be what people see and we appreciate that.”
The 34th Army Band is one of the few military organizations whose public facing mission primarily involves interacting with the civilian community. As part of the Army band’s mission, the group performs at venues like CGD in order to interact with and foster community support for the mission of the Iowa National Guard.
