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AFCENT band brings 'Full Spectrum' of morale

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Emerson Nuñez
  • U.S. Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION --  Exploding onto the stage with enough energy to tune up base-wide morale, the newly arrived AFCENT band, “Full Spectrum” from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, started their first tour in Southwest Asia on a high note with seven performances.

The AFCENT band is made up of professional Airmen musicians who provide a tool in keeping troop morale up and use music to bridge language and cultural differences in the Central Command Area of Responsibility.

“Deploying an Air Force band is critical to the CENTCOM mission,” said Capt. Jason Plosch, AFCENT band officer in charge. “We have our troops over here, so we have a band here at all times,” “If the commander in chief feels it's important to have American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines here, then we can certainly be here to support them.”

With different priorities in the AOR, the band works to reach as many Airmen as possible to keep spirits high everywhere they go. Stateside bands typically perform for large crowds who travel to see the bands; whereas in the AOR, the band will travel to service members and their work stations.

“The mission is different than a stateside mission because we have different priorities; first is troop morale, we take care of those taking care of the fight, and our priorities are geared more individualistically,” Plosch said. “We go out to where the workers are in their offices and the flightline to bring a slice of home to our deployed troops and coalition partners.”

Air Force bands are organized into premier and regional bands. The USAF Band in Washington, D.C., is the premier band; nine regional bands are found at seven locations in the continental U.S. and three operate from Germany, Japan and Hawaii. Each CONUS band is tasked to deploy their own members as the AFCENT band to support the CENTCOM mission.

“Each CONUS band sends a different configuration to meet different performance requirements, which can be to play rock and roll, country, pop, protocol and combo, you have to do everything,” Plosch said. “We have nine members including a horn section, so we have the ‘full spectrum’ experience.”

The AFCENT band is deployed to Al Udeid Air base, Qatar, and conducts tours around the AOR as frequently as possible. Full Spectrum recently performed for appreciative crowds made up of service members from all branches of the military and coalition partners at undisclosed locations in Southwest Asia.

“It was an awesome time and we appreciate them taking time to come out, entertain us and giving us a fantastic experience,” said U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Regina Forbes, guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) cryptologic technician maintainer. “The interaction and way they worked was great. At first everyone was sitting back and just listening but they worked on getting everyone involved.”

Seeing an appreciative happy crowd at the end of each performance is a satisfying indicator for accomplishing their mission for Full Spectrum.

“I think some of the most gratifying jobs we do are some of the hardest; touring at different bases I get a sense of how stressful people's lives are with working long days, in hot weather and difficult conditions,” said Senior Airman Mark Oates, AFCENT Band trumpet player. “At the beginning of each show you can feel the people wound really tight, and when we finish up, you can see people are actually relaxed and you see them smiling and singing along, you know you did something that was worthwhile, and that’s great.”

Not only were the musicians performing in temperatures with a heat index of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, but they were also palletizing, loading equipment on trucks and setting up two tons worth of equipment a couple hours before each performance.

“We are our own roadies,” said Master Sgt. Tyler Selden, AFCENT Band NCO in charge and audio engineer. “When you are in a smaller rock band, everybody needs to help haul equipment around.”

The band doesn't shy away from hard work and dedication, especially when that work goes back to support the troops, the musicians said.

“We definitely accomplished our mission here,” said Tech. Sgt. Bennett Weidemann, AFCENT band drummer. “A lot of good things happened, a lot of instant results from the people we interacted with. Being deployed is about the impact you make, so overall, this trip was a success.”