Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps
Northwest Division
History of Dan Ross, 1st Time

We're bound for the land of the pure and the holy.
    The Home of the happy, the kingdom of love:
Ye wanderers from God in the broad road of folly;
    O say, will you go to the Eden above?

Refrain

Will you go? Will you go?
Will you go? Will you go?
    O say, will you go to the Eden above?

In that blessed land, neither sighing nor anguish
    Can breathe in the field where the glorified rove'
Ye heart-burdened ones who in misery languish
    O say, will you go to the Eden above?

Refrain

Each saint has a mansion, prepared and all furnished.
    Ere from this small house he is summoned to move:
Its gates and its towers with glory are burnished
    O say, will you go to the Eden above?

Refrain

March on, happy soldiers, the land is before you.
    And soon its ten thousand delights we shall prove;
Yes, soon we'll be massed on the hills of bright Glory
    And drink the pure joys of the Eden above.

Refrain
We will go! We will go!
We will go! We will go!
    O yes, we will go to the Eden above!

In one year in high school, I was in around 20 different bands and orchestras. I was in several Salvation Army bands and ensembles. We played this march in the Northwest Divisional Band on many occasions.

 We arrived in Seattle, Washington, in 1959 and I went into the 7th grade. The name of the main corps in Seattle was the Seattle Citadel Corps. The Corps Officers were Swedish by the name of Johanson. There was a Salvation Army "outpost" in Ballard, our Seattle neighborhood. An outpost was a sub unit of a corps. The mother corps of the Ballard Outpost was Seattle Citadel. We attended the Citadel Corps and the Ballard outpost. There was an assistant officer for the Citadel Corps who led the Ballard Outpost. Eventually, our family ran the outpost. We would attend Sunday School at the outpost and then go to the regular Sunday service at the Citadel Corps. The Ballard Outpost had a larger Sunday School than the Citadel Corps due to our family being there. Eventually, the outpost was closed and our family simply attended the Citadel Corps.

We had been raised to be in church on Sunday morning AND Sunday evening so we continued the practice in Seattle. There was a youth group called the "Corps Cadets" which was a leadership training program. We would go to church in the morning and then return in the afternoon for Corps Cadets. Once I had finished the Corps Cadet class, I had completed my my Sunday evening obligations and would hotfoot it out the door to catch the bus to get home in time for Maverick.

In Wyoming, I had taken violin lessons. I had been playing around in my parents' bedroom closet and had found my mother's violin from her high school days and had opened the case and was fiddling with it. (O.K., pun intended.) I heard a noise and looked up to find my mother standing over me. She looked at me and said, "Hey. You found my old violin. Do you want to learn to play it? Thinking fast, I realized that we still lived in the era of spankings and knew that a whipping was somewhere in my near future unless I came up with the right answer. Right away I said, "Oh yes, mommy. I would love to learn to play this violin." I remember being in the third grade when this life changing event took place. I started violin lessons.

So when I got to Seattle, I already had been trained musically and had played in the Sheridan town elementary school all - city orchestra. At the Seattle Citadel corps there was an assistant officer named Lieutenant Gwen Patterson. She had decided to teach some kids to play brass instruments so she taught me to play a "tenor horn" also known as a "baritone horn." I followed in her footsteps and years later, I taught quite a few kids how to play in a brass band using the same old tenor horn.

Before I tell you anymore, I have to tell you that Seattle was like musical heaven for me. Here are a few of the music organizations I played in in Seattle and other places in no particular order:

• James Monroe Jr. Hi. Concert Band
• James Monroe Jr. Hi. Symphony Orchestra
• Seattle All City Ninth Grade Band
• Seattle All City High School Honor Band
• Seattle Citadel Corps Band of The Salvation Army
• Seattle Temple Corps Band of The Salvation Army
• The Salvation Army Northwest Divisional Band
• The Salvation Army Northwest Divisional Brass Sextet
• Ballard High School Marching Band
• Ballard High School Concert Band
• Ballard High School Symphony Orchestra
• Ballard High School Pep Band
• Ballard High School Brass Quintet
• All Northwest High School Band
• THE United States Navy Band (DC)
• The University of Washington Wind Sinfonietta
• The Baltimore Area Band of the Salvation Army
• The Texas Divisional Youth Band
• The Texas Divisional Band
• The Houston, Texas, Temple Corps Band
• The Texas Gulf Coast Area Band

As I started school at James Monroe Junior High School in Ballard, I played violin in the orchestra. I used my mother's high school violin and I'm proud to say I'm sitting next to the same violin right now, some 45 years later. Unfortunately, even though I have the violin, I'm ashamed to say it bears the scars of some stupid sword fights with other violinists of the James Monroe Junior High School Symphony Orchestra.

I was the best musician in the orchestra. but that didn't matter to our orchestra teacher. I was eventually (O.K. REAL SOON) demoted, along with another idiot swordsman, to playing the third violin part while Cecile Hopper, the prim and proper, played Concert Mistress on the 1st violin part. There is virtually nothing worse in a Jr. Hi. orchestra than the third violin part. We played the "Rosemunde Overture" which, on third violin, amounts to a quick "sawing motion" on the same note for hours. I have never had much interest in memorizing music, but my fellow idiot swordsman could play something once and have it memorized forever. Playing only one or two notes real fast on the 3rd violin part was a snap for him to memorize. We shared the same music on the same music stand. Every time we played "The Rosemunde Overture," he would play for about 30 or 40 measures and then reach over and flip the music shut blowing me out of the water while he played on as if nothing happened. It kept me in trouble the whole time I was in Jr Hi. He, on the other hand, was handy to have around because he was a professional accordion player. He was fantastic on the accordion. I still think we were both better than Cecile, but she was politically correct and sat ahead of us.

The Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps Senior Band Admits Me and I Spend the Night in Jail

Gwen Patterson did her work very well and soon, I was pretty good on the baritone so I enrolled in the James Monroe Junior High School Band. I immediately skipped the Cadet Band and was placed first chair in the Concert Band. I played that old silver plated tenor horn in the Jr Hi. band. After getting pretty good on the tenor horn, I realized I was as good as the adults in the Seattle Citadel Corps (later renamed The Seattle Temple Corps) brass band. Thinking I could play in the Corps Senior band, I began asking around. About then, Major Longden was appointed to be the Citadel Corps Commanding Officer. He had a son named George. Every once in a while, I would get together with George and we would play some music. George played piano, so he would accompany me. His father, being the COMMANDING Officer, would announce us to the congregation thusly: "My son George will now play a piano solo accompanied by Dan Ross on the violin." I didn't really think that was cute.

 This particular corps never had any interest in bringing anybody into the band. Major Longden would visit our home occasionally and if I saw him coming, I would grab my horn and start playing. He was never impressed. However, he had been the commanding officer in a large corps in California which had a large band and he wanted his son George to play in a California band when they eventual would be transferred back to California. So he told the bandmaster that George and I would be playing in the Corps band. The bandmaster simply said O.K. I got into the band because the Corps Officer wanted his son in the band and he didn't think it would look too good if I weren't in the band too.

One Wednesday, I forgot my horn when school was out and left it in the band room which was a portable wooden building on the playground. I went back to school and went around the whole thing four or five times and then decided I was going to have to open a window. I hadn't been through the US Army Intelligence School (USAINTS) lock picking course yet or this would have been a piece of cake. I decided to go in through the back window because it was sheltered from view by the general public. I saw a kid I knew riding around on a bicycle and asked him to "lookout for me." Unfortunately not only did I know him, but he was well known by the Seattle Police Department, a fact of which I was unaware. All of a sudden some girls came running around the building and my stupid lookout didn't say a word. The Ballard Girls Drill Team had arrived for practice right in front of the building I was attempting to retrieve my horn from. As luck would have it, one of the girls was the daughter of a Seattle Police Detective who was still standing in front of the building. I was nabbed.

I was taken to the Wallingford police station and sat there all night until the police could find my mother and confirm that I was not only in The Salvation Army band, but that I had a horn in the band room at the school. I missed band practice that night. When I got out, I found that news travels fast. Everybody at The Salvation Army and everybody at James Monroe Junior High School laughed at me for weeks. This experience stayed with me and later when the Counter Intelligence team I was on was directed to break into a building, I refused to help open it up. I was right then and our Captain almost lost his rank over the dumb move.

We were in the 9th grade and the call went out from the Seattle School District that an All - City band was being formed with 9th graders. George and I both tried out. George didn't make the band, but I played about 32 measures of the Euphonium part of an old Salvation Army Band march called "The Challenge of Youth." The band director stopped me and said, "Where on earth did you learn to play like that?" I said, "At The Salvation Army." He said, "You're in the band and you'll be sitting first chair." Kewl!!

Salvation Army Northwest Division - My First Band Camp Experience

Around this time, I went to the first band camp I had ever attended in my life. It was at Camp Lake Boren. The Salvation Army owned a camp on Lake Boren outside Seattle. This camp spoiled me forever. The Divisional Youth Secretary was Captain Dallas Madsen. He absolutely spoiled me. No other Divisional Youth Secretary has ever even come close to the ability and charisma of Cpt. Madsen. I have attended The Salvation Army in the Eastern Territory, the Southern Territory and the Western Territory and I've never seen any officer who could do what Cpt. Madsen could do. He became one of my life long heroes. When he was Divisional Youth Secretary, our little Northwest Division Music Camp was as good as the best music camps in the country. This included the Territorial Music Institutes.

At my first music camp, there were over 200 campers. We had to find teepees and tents because there were about twice as many campers as the camp would hold. Our music camps were normally organized into five bands with letter names. The top band was the Staff band. It was comprised of the adult music teachers and a few top flight campers. Next was the A band made up of the best campers, followed by the B, C and D bands. At my first band camp, we had the Staff band which sounded like the New York Staff Band and then the A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H bands. As I recall, I was in the C band. For those of you who are familiar with Salvation Army band music, the Staff band played the Festival March "Aberystwyth." They played it fast and it was snappy. I had a tape recording of that band playing "Aberystwyth" which I played over and over, but in my many moves, I've lost it.

Music camps always have some guest conductor from "elsewhere." Our guest that year was Bernard Verkaik from Holland. Somehow he got the dates mixed up and didn't show up. Frantic phone calls were made and he got there about the fourth day of the camp. To welcome him to the camp, the Staff band, the A band and the B band all formed up and made a parade into the camp area escorting his car as he drove in. This camp was like heaven to me. I have never had a musical experience such as this again in The Salvation Army. This was the most dramatic thing to happen to me in The Salvation Army until my wife and my daughter and I returned to Seattle from Texas many years later. You'll have to wait for that story, but it will be worth it. It will send chills up and down your spine.

Salvation Army Northwest Division - My Next Band Camp Experiences

The next band camp I went to the following year was pretty interesting. Captain Madsen had been transferred and the camps went down hill from there. The first day of band camp we always had placement auditions. Captain McHarg had been transferred into Seattle to Divisional Headquarters as the Divisional Finance Secretary. He was a child protege on the cornet and the Divisional Youth Secretary apparently had never played an instrument so Cpt. McHarg just waltzed in and took over everything in the Division having to do with Brass Bands. I don't know who appointed him in this position, but it worked out very well for me, although he did a few things that made my eyes bug out.

At my second band camp, Cpt. McHarg did my audition and assigned me to the C band. Later, we had sectional rehearsals and I was sitting with an officer who was tutoring me on the trombone when we heard a group of trombone players practicing under the huge cherry tree in the middle of the camp. The officer wanted to know why the D band trombones were in that location. I told him they were the B band trombones. He couldn't believe it. He went and had a talk with Cpt. McHarg and I was moved up to B band a few minutes later because I was better than the other guys. I asked Cpt. McHarg why he had put me in C band and he said because he knew that I could play better than I had done in the audition (we played in the same corps band at the Citadel) and he thought I was being a smart alec in the audition. That year, the A AND B bands went into town to the television studio and performed live on TV for Seattle. When I moved into the B band I met Frank Bunch. His father was the corps officer in Aberdeen and Frank played the trombone. We had a great time together and became close friends.

Not Just The Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps or Northwest Division, But Some Other Music Experiences

Cpt. McHarg was my kind of guy in one respect. He believed that a band was for working not just for show. He led the Divisional Band and we went everywhere in Washington State to march in parades and play at various Corps. We played frequently. He also formed a brass sextet in which I played. This sextet played a concert practically every week. We played in every service club in Seattle. We played in every little town that had ever heard of The Salvation Army. We played in places so remote that we had never even heard of them before our trip. We played in the State Prison in Walla Walla. I remember Olin Hogan was on that trip. He is now the Divisional Commander in Mexico. We played six or seven concerts in the prison including the women's prison and all security levels except maximum security. In the minimum security level, I recall a prisoner with a snare drum joined us. All of this busy music making with the Salvation Army was interspersed with my playing in the Seattle Public Schools bands and orchestras. The only time I've ever been busier in The Salvation Army was when I was bandmaster of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Band.

In my junior year in high school I was selected to represent Ballard High School in the All Northwest Band. This was generally reserved for seniors but my band director, Perry Barth, wanted me to experience this and since it only met every other year, I had to go as a junior. This was a fantastic experience. There were about 250 students selected from the five northwest states. We were from Washington, Idaho, Montana, Idaho and Oregon. The All Northwest Band met in conjunction with some Association of Music Teachers. The band met in Portland, Oregon, and played a concert for the Music Teachers Association. We first watched a rehearsal of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and later we had our concert after a few days of rehearsal. This concert included one of the most dramatic musical events of my life. With 250 in a concert band you would expect loudness to be a problem. It wasn't. We accompanied a girl playing a flute solo. We only practiced a could of times, but when you have great musicians and know a few tricks, you can do amazing things.

When we played the concert, our band was so under control that I heard every note the flute player played with no electronic amplification of any kind. When we finished the last note, it faded away so softly that not even the band members could hear when it finished. After I could hear no more of the last note from the band, it was a full 30 seconds before the music teachers realized the band was no longer playing. It was absolutely silent. You could hear a pin drop. It seemed like nobody was even breathing. Suddenly, the audience, all music teachers, standing room only in the Portland, Oregon, symphony orchestra concert hall, realized the piece was over. They jumped to their feet screaming and shouting and whistling and applauding. This is the gospel truth: The applause lasted for five minutes or more. This was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had in any concert.

 At the Salvation Army band camp at Lake Boren my last year in high school I was selected "Camper of the Year" and was supposed to receive a free trip to any band camp in the US. I chose Hawaii and Cpt. McHarg suddenly remembered it was every band camp except Alaska and Hawaii so I chose Star Lake in New Jersey and all of a sudden it was any band camp in the Western Territory. So I told him to save some money and just use it to send my brother to band camp. Well the next year my brother won the award and it was a free trip to any band camp in the Western Territory. The catch this time was that he played Tuba and he would have to pay to have his Tuba shipped to the band camp so he didn't go. Up until we won the awards the prior winners had gone to Star Lake and the Central Music Institute. Such is life.

I suppose I won the award partly because on Solo and Small Ensemble Contest Night I was in a bunch of different ensembles in addition to playing my own solo. My sister was at camp and I was trying to get her to play a solo. She wouldn't do it so I agreed to play a duet with her. Frank Bunch and the trombone section from the A band, which I was in, had gotten music for a Trombone quintet written by the Bandmaster from Montreal, Canada. Back then Wollensak had a "wet" duplicator which was the forerunner to the Xerox machine. You could print on t-shirts with it so we each printed our trombone part on the back of a t-shirt. We then stood in a circle so I could see my music on the back of the guy in front of me and his music was on the back of the guy in front of him, etc. We called ourselves "The Dope Ring" and played in the contest in a tight little circle.

A mysterious event happened that year on soloist night. Captain McHarg had been a "child protege" on the cornet and, as a child, he had been a guest soloist for many great Salvation Army bands in the US and Canada. On this particular Soloist night, he was down on the program to play the oh so kewl and popular cornet solo "Tucker." He started playing with a piano accompaniment. My jaw dropped, my eyes went wide open and I almost choked. It was HORRIBLE!! He played in the same Seattle Temple Corps Band with me and I couldn't believe how bad this sounded. At one point, he turned his cornet around and looked down the bell. I thought he was clowning around trying to rescue his solo with a comedy routine. Last night the mystery was solved for me. I got an email from a nameless source who had read this page. He was reminded of this incident at camp and he told me that just recently he had been told that a certain camper whose initials are P. L. and a crony had got temporary possession of Captain McHarg's cornet. P.L. et al., pulled all of McHarg's tuning slides out a little. McHarg couldn't get his lip to force the cornet onto the proper pitch and his performance was ruined in a most humiliating fashion. Way to go P.L.

For some reason that year someone decided we would have a popularity contest. I had got my girlfriend into the Seattle Schools All - City Marching band and we put on those fantastic uniforms and marched around the dining room with Frank Bunch carrying a bass drum beating it and we all shouted stupid election slogans. My girl friend and I were voted "King and Queen of Music."

Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps Cadets

When I was in Jr and Sr High School. at the Seattle Temple Corps we had a group of teenagers called "Corps Cadets." This is The Salvation Army's training ground for Local Officers. "Local Officers" are those people in a "Corps" who are the lay leadership. In almost all cases they are simply members of the congregation who volunteer to accept responsibility for different aspects of administering the Corps.

When I was a teenager at The Seattle Temple Corps, our Corps Cadet class was extremely active. Every Sunday afternoon we would meet for classes. This included instruction in Salvation Army history, Bible study and administering the Corps. We studied each local officer position and what the duties, responsibilities and benefits of the position included. Our Corps Cadet Brigade was one of the largest and most active in the Western Territory. Most Sunday afternoons when we finished our lessons, we would jump in a couple of station wagons and vans and visit a hospital with the "league of Mercy." Joan Burleigh was the most active "soldier" in our corps in this area and she would instruct us on what to do and "how to behave." Her ability to gain access to places and to get things done is legendary.

We Corps Cadets would pass out packages of toiletries, tracts and any other items. Most of us played in a band or sang in the "Songsters" (Corps Choir) so we would play our instruments and sing. Around Christmas was the busiest time for all of us, especially this kind of activity. We were visiting a retirement home one day when our Corps Officer's wife, Mrs. Lloyd, leaned over a man in his bed with his eyes closed. All of a sudden his eyes flew open and a look of extreme disappointment came over his face. He said, "Oh brother, I heard the music and I thought I had died and gone to heaven and then I opened my eyes and saw you." Later, she told us she though he had died and she was checking to see if he were still breathing.

One of the activities we regularly too part in was worship services at the Harborlight Corps in the area of Seattle known as "Skid Row." We would go in there and lead the singing, play some music and my brother would normally end up preaching. At some point, a South American / Swiss officer named Brigadier Magnenat moved to Seattle. His son was appointed Bandmaster at the Seattle Temple Corps. Brigadier Magnenat was a great character. He was a little tiny guy. One of the rules for the men being fed a free meal was that they "should" sit through a church service and then go downstairs and eat. Brig. Magnenat took it upon himself to keep them awake during the service so while we were singing, playing, reading scripture and preaching, he would walk around and gently slap the cheeks of the guys who were dozing off.

The thing I remember most about the Harborlight was an old chubby Indian named "Rudy." We had "testimony" time where anybody could stand up and tell what God had done for them. When Rudy was there, this was the best part of the service. Rudy would jump up in the back row and shout, "Hallelujah. I want to tell you what God did for me." And then he would tell how he had been a drunk and was so familiar with the Seattle police jail that all he would have to do for a place to sleep would be to walk in drunk and they'd put him in a cell. Then one day, he was lying outside the police station downtown in his own vomit and he could hardly move when he heard a group from The Salvation Army preaching, praying and singing. He told how he had listened to them and how God had reached down and took him out of the filth he had been living in. He told how he hadn't had a drop of liquor since. I always thought that was miraculous, but I had never seen anything like that happen to anybody. Wait until you hear what happened to us at the Seattle Temple Corps years later.

Besides Rudy, I've met some interesting people who had gone through the Salvation Army men's social service program. I often wondered whatever happened to guys who had gone through the program. Part of the deal is to try to get them back together with their families if that's still possible. Then one day we were playing in the band at the dedication of a new Men's Social Service Center in Seattle. One of the speakers at the event was either the deputy mayor or his assistant. He talked about the need for the building and the service and then he told how he had been a client and had gone through the program himself and was now completely sober. That was a little impressive, but not as impressive as what we experienced at The Seattle Temple Corps years later.

Our Corps Cadet experience was tremendous. I do believe that we could have taken our Corps Cadet class and moved it to another location and we could have had a full blown Corps going in no time at all.

Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps Band and Walter Welke

One weekend Ray Steadman Allen visited The Seattle Temple Corps. The Los Angeles Tabernacle Brass Ensemble came the same weekend and we had a band concert featuring them at Ingraham High School. The building was fairly new then and it's a pretty nice concert hall. This was a great program with our band, the L.A. ensemble and Ray Steadman-Allen.

There were two significant events that night. The first was the Grand Pause in the Festival Series piece "Go Down Moses." This is a fast and firey piece of music with the Grand Pause being the most dramatic moment towards the end of the piece. Ray Steadman-Allen was conducting the band and we were like a massive freight train speeding towards the Grand Pause where the HUGE DRAMATIC MOMENT OF ABSOLUTE SILENCE would occur. We got there and instead of silence there was a loud crash as the snare drummer's drum stick hit the rim and bounced out of her hand. It flew through the band during the GRAND PAUSE whacking music stands and brass instruments as Ray Steadman-Allen stood there watching it, holding the band still with his baton. It shot from level to level down through the band and rolled up to his feet. That marked the end of the GRAND PAUSE and Ray Steadman-Allen brought the band in for the rest of the dramatic climax as if nothing had happened.

The other significant occurrence was that as I looked out over the audience, I saw an old man sitting near the back of the audience. I recognized him immediately as Walter Welke. The next time I saw Welke, I asked him if he enjoyed the concert. He said he loved it. From then on I looked for him at our concerts and he was usually there. I always went to him afterwards and got a critique of how he thought our band had done. He was usually quite honest and just as usually quite pleased and complimentary. I asked him if he had ever heard any other Salvation Army bands or British Brass Bands. He looked at me and laughed and said, "I've spent many summers with Eric Ball going to Brass Band concerts in England. I've heard hundreds of Salvation Army bands." Eric Ball was one of the best and most prolific composers of brass band music ever associated with The Salvation Army. I believe he may have even been an officer at one time.

Who was Walter Welke? He was one of the best known band conductors on the West Coast. I knew him because he was my band director in the Seattle Schools All-City Honor Band when I was in the 9th grade and for a couple of years after that. When I went to the University of Washington, he was conducting the "University of Washington Wind Sinfonietta." I went down to the basement of the music building and walked in on audition day. He said, "Hi. What are you doing here?" I said, "I came for an audition." He said, "You don't need an audition, just be here for the next class time." After a year at the UW, I went in the Army and to Vietnam. When I got back, I went to the UW to finish my undergrad degree. I walked into the rehearsal room and he said, "Hey, where have you been? How come you didn't sign up for another quarter?" I said, "I took a little vacation from school to attend the South East Asia War Games." He said, "O.K., welcome home." He kept asking me to play a Euphonium solo with the Wind Sinfonietta, but I wouldn't do it so he found a quartet for a Euphonium and three trombones accompanied by the Sinfonietta so I did that. Then he would sneak in music with solos embedded in them. One piece started with me playing a hymn tune totally by myself. That was a nifty piece of music, but basically a trick to get another solo out of me. I'm not quite that good.

Walter Welke hadn't made too much of our snare drummer's little drum stick trick because he had his own set of mishaps. We were preparing for a concert one time and we were playing a piece I don't remember except the end of it was really hairy and nothing but sixteenth and 32nd notes and it had to be extremely well coordinated. He insisted that we memorize the last eight measures and we had to be looking directly at him to watch the baton. Well, I decided for him I would abandon my custom of never memorizing music and I memorized the last eight measures. We came storming down through this extreme music and got to the eighth measure from the end and instantly I could see everybody's head go up. Amidst all of the rush of the music and the fantastic rhythmic changes there was Walter Welke, his head bent down, holding the baton with his lips flipping through the full score furiously looking for his place in the music. We finished without him.

In 1929, Walter Welke organized the official ' Husky Marching Band .' Starting with an initial membership of just 34, Welke worked to quickly build up the size of the band that had more than doubled to 70 members in just two years. The new Husky Marching Band took over the ROTC band's duties of performing at football games. Under the direction of Welke, the band adopted its current 'high-stepping' style of marching and became an innovator in the combination of on-field drill and musical performance. It was also noted as being one of the few bands on the west coast that was composed entirely of University students, a point of pride in the newly formed ensemble.

By 1940, the band had reached 144 members in number. The outbreak of war the following year took a heavy toll on the band with many students serving overseas in defense of the Union and the University. The size of the band decreased dramatically during this period of conflict.

Welke retired as marching band director in 1958 after nearly 30-years of uninterrupted service to Washington and Bill Cole, a 1946 graduate of Illinois, replaced him. Cole had served the past 10 years as Assistant Marching Band Director under Welke before his promotion.

From the online History of the University of Washington "Husky" Marching Band

The period of my life in which I played in the most bands was in my senior year of High School. One day I counted up all of the different bands and orchestras I played in in my last year in high school. It was over 20. Some of them I can't even remember now. I played in the "Babes in Toyland" band for Seafair marching in about 12 parades in a one week period. I played in the Ballard High School Concert Band, Marching Band, Pep Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Brass quintet. I played in the All - City Symphony Orchestra, the All - City High School Honor Band, the All - City Marching Band and the United States Navy Band in the Opera House. In the Salvation Army I played in the Band Camp Staff Band, the Band Camp A Band, the Northwest Divisional Band, the Northwest Brass Sextet, the Christmas Kettle Band, and The Seattle Temple Corps Band. There four or five others which I just can't remember.

 I Leave The Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps for the First Time

After two years of college, I was preparing to get married when my fiance decided to elope with another man. I did the normal thing by going to my mother with my sorrow. She, of course, being older and wiser than I would ever be simply said, "Cheer up. Things could be worse." So I cheered up, and sure enough... Things got worse. Within a week or two I got a phone call from the Draft Board in Seattle. It was simple: I had ten days to enlist because after that, I was going to be drafted.

Since the beginning of the Vietnam war, I had been impressed with helicopters and I really wanted to be a helicopter pilot so I did the right thing and tried to get into the Coast Guard. It's just wonderful how God works things out for people way ahead of time. I was just a touch color blind. In the Coast Guard recruiter's office there was a "Dutch door." The bottom half was locked and had a shelf on it with a color test chained to the shelf. I got to the Coast Guard recruiter and was standing behind another guy. The Coast Guard recruiter was on the inside of the door. The Coast Guard would not even speak to anybody until AFTER they passed the color test. I watched as the other guy flipped through the pages of the color test calling out letters and numbers that I couldn't even see.

I moved on to the Navy and Marine recruiters. I told them I was a student pilot and I wanted to fly in the military, but I was a touch color blind. They conferred with each other and sent upstairs to get the opinion of the Marine pilot up there. He sent word back that there was no chance I would ever fly in the Navy or Marines. That pretty much left the US Army. Canada was close by, but I'm not Canadian so I didn't follow the couple of guys I knew who went that route. I did the manly thing and went to the Army recruiter. God had planned ahead at my birth and saved me from dying in a falling ball of fire by making me just a teeny bit color blind. I was good for flying civilian, but not quite good enough for military flying. I told the recruiter "I've got six days left before I get drafted. If you can find anything in the Army where nobody's been killed, I'll enlist right now." He got out this strange little circular thing and asked me what my scores had been on my tests. I told him and he said , "With scores like that, you can go anywhere in the Army you want, but let me check my chart." He checked his chart and said, "The only place for you is Special Intelligence." I said, "Has anybody in Special Intelligence ever been killed?" He said, "No." (Liar, liar, pants on fire.....)

I negotiated a delayed enlistment so I could go on active duty with the Army in September in order to be in basic training in the most mellow weather that Fort Lewis, Washington, had to offer. (It was the hottest September, and coldest October I've ever experienced in Washington State.) I began accumulating "time in grade" the day I signed up so when I went on active duty several months later, I had already been promoted. I spent the summer taking flying lessons, flying rented planes, settling all of my business affairs and whizzing around at 90 miles an hour in my brother's Dodge 440 Coronet. It was fast!

That summer had some very dramatic and emotional events in it. But it was nothing like what happened to me and my wife years later at the Seattle Temple Corps.

Then I left Seattle.

 From the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps, Northwest Division to The Salvation Army Anacortes Corps, Northwest Division you travel North on Greenwood to North 105th Street, turn right and head East to Interstate 5. Take Interstate 5 northbound and head for Anacortes.

The Route passes through Everett. On a clear day, there is a great view of Mt. Baker for much of the trip.

Frank Bunch's father was the corps officer at Aberdeen when I first met him. We were pretty much best friends in high school within the Salvation Army.

 From the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps, Northwest Division to The Salvation Army Anacortes Corps, Northwest Division you travel North on Greenwood to North 105th Street, turn right and head East to Interstate 5. Take Interstate 5 northbound and head for Bellingham. You pass the Anacortes turn off and continue North towards Vancouver, Canada.

The Route passes through Everett. On a clear day, there is a great view of Mt. Baker for much of the trip.

 From the Salvation Army Seattle Temple Corps, Northwest Division to The Salvation Army Anacortes Corps, Northwest Division you travel North on Greenwood to North 105th Street, turn right and head East to Interstate 5. Take Interstate 5 northbound and head for Everett.

The Route passes through Lynnwood. On a clear day, there is a great view of Mt. Baker for much of the trip.

The Mid-Columbia Corps opened a new building and the Seattle Temple Corps Band was invited to play at the dedication. Some of us teenagers stayed awake all night the night before the dedication service. During the service, Brigadier Strathdee preached the sermon. One of the guys who stayed awake all night was sitting in the band directly in front of the pulpit. He would fall asleep, partly because of the strange monotone Brig. Strathdee commanded. As he nodded off, the Baritone player would begin to lean over. When he got about 30 degrees from the vertical and was about to fall off his seat, someone would reach over and shake him awake. This went on through the whole sermon.

It was on this trip that Mrs. Major Wiseman drove a van full of us back to the Seattle Temple Corps from the Mid-Columbia Corps. As we went over Snoqualmie Pass, Mike Olsen was driving a car and was supposed to be sticking with us. He would get up around 90 miles an hour while we tooled along at 60. Then he would stop along the road and wait for us to catch up. At one point, he disappeared in the distance and we came around a curve, hit an ice patch and went off the road. We hit compacted snow beside the highway and the wheel well on the right front of the van was filled with compacted snow to the point that it would not turn at all. We were stuck. Several hours later, Mike found us and dug us out with a shove he carried in the trunk of his car.

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