From the Director’s Desk

RAN BAND NEWS EDITION NUMBER 12 11 JULY 2008

RAN BAND DETACHMENT ON DEPLOYMENT IN AFGHANISTAN

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK

As I stated in the previous edition of RAN Band News, ‘the history of the Navy Band has continued to develop at full pace’, and its record of service is no where more clearly demonstrated than in this edition. Over the past six months we have deployed 12 musicians to the Middle East including to Iraq and Afghanistan, embarked 11 musicians in HMAS Tobruk and deployed a technical team to Timor to support a Force Advisory Committee on Entertainment (FACE) tour. We conducted a number of benchmark activities including a ‘direct to air’ broadcast, one ship decommissioning ceremony and one ship commissioning ceremony, and a number of ship Farewell and Welcome Home Ceremonies. We also deployed a small musical element to support HMAS Arunta for ANZAC day in Mumbai. Throughout all of this activity we still managed to do our usual business within and around the Nation. Feedback that I have received about the contribution made by our people to the recent deployment to the Middle East has been nothing short of outstanding. The quality of our people and the capability that they bring to any event is clearly evident. I know that the people who manage these FACE sponsored tours value very highly our contribution. The ‘direct to air’ broadcast on ABC Classic FM reached more than 700,000 people and inspired the musicians with an exciting and challenging music program. We remain grateful to the team at ABC Classic FM for the confidence that they continue to show in the Navy Band and for their willingness to support wind band music in Australia and, in particular, our unique performances. The band’s contribution to ship Farewell and Welcome Home ceremonies continues to deliver a strong sense of national and naval pride to those occasions: it’s hard to imagine what those important ceremonies would be like without the Navy Band.