Each year in Massachusetts, the third Monday in April is celebrated as Patriot’s Day, a state holiday to commemorate April 19, 1775 when Colonists took up arms in defense of Liberty and touched off the American Revolution. Distance runners celebrate the day via the Boston Marathon, the world’s most famous road race, while residents in the adjacent Hanscom communities of Concord and Lexington take to the streets to celebrate “the shot heard ’round the world.” Each year, for the United States Air Force Band of Liberty, Patriot’s Day is the busiest day on the schedule. This year was no different—on April 17, the Band was involved in several local Patriot’s Day events.
The Marching Band, led by newly appointed Drum Major Staff Sergeant Richard Hobson, made its annual appearance at the Patriot’s Day festivities in Concord. Over 30,000 lined the streets for the parade and the Commemoration of the Concord Conflict. This annual ceremony takes place halfway through the parade at the Old North Bridge in Minute Man National Park, where volunteers in British and Colonial attire and musketry reenact that fateful morning in 1775. In the afternoon, the Marching Band appeared again in the Patriot’s Day parade in neighboring Lexington before an additional 50,000 enthusiastic area residents.
Vocalist Master Sergeant Laura Noel was the envy of her band colleagues on Patriot’s Day, as she landed a gig at Boston's historic Fenway Park to perform at a Boston Red Sox–Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball game. Her renditions of the National Anthem before the game and God Bless America during the 7th Inning Stretch delighted 36,188 fans in attendance and a radio, television and satellite audience of over four million households. |
