| American Soldier |  |
American Soldier opens with an awakening bell that brings a new day to those who have left their families to start a new life in service to their country.
The music continues with a series of selected bugle calls used by the Army to give troops nonverbal commands. These musical phrases, usually sounded by trumpets or drums, still direct the daily activities of soldiers on many Army posts.
In some sections the bugle calls are reharmonized, and in other sections they are played as written. In all cases the melody of the bugle call is unaltered, and are presented in the order that they are used during a regular garrison day of an American Soldier.
Reveille (0530hrs), Assembly (0535hrs), Mess Call (0640hrs), Drill Call (1530hrs), and Retreat (1800hrs).
The narrative for American Soldier was written by Carol Williams, an artist, poet and musician who is also a US Army veteran.
Narrative:
They came from everywhere.
They came from America.
They came to America
to be American Soldiers.
They came from everywhere
and were altered forever
and are to be remembered
Always.
Always the memory of the boot
reflecting the returned salute,
the pain of marching, the waiting
the cold and the sweat.
Soles that had to first climb their mountains
before moving them.
Always the image of the rank-
the stripes, the bars,
the stars and the eagles.
The following of orders,
the giving of orders.
Orders they took that cost lives.
Orders they gave that took their own lives.
Always the shadow of fear,
living as target, protector
and predator,
forever at the mercy of the machine that is
the struggle between
ideal and real.
Always the music of the drum and bugle
calling out the history and tradition,
the ceremony of change.
The pattern of sound to movement.
The shared momentum of
isolated individuals.
Always the message of home;
A place of many languages.
Voices that had the right to be spoken,
the chance to grow and blend together
to create American soldiers with mothers from
every country, every continent, every culture.
Then always back to the place you can never return to;
To pick up plowshares,
and paperwork and computers.
Sometimes taking a lifetime to make peace with themselves,
with the country, with the enemy,
with the knowing that the next inevitable war
will send their children to be
American soldiers.
Always to live in awe of those who can no longer
speak of what they did
to survive: for survival of the world they knew,
as we inherit it today.
They have willed to us
ownership of a country that expects us to
speak out as we believe,
asks us to defend the voiceless,
and that we forever bear the burden of our birthright.
In a world cursed by hate
they have shown
courage beyond comprehension
energy beyond expectation
and mercy beyond imagination,
all in the name of our nation.
They are forever the MinuteMen, the Yanks, Buffalo Soldiers,
the Doughboys, GIs, Grunts, flat-feet foot soldiers, the WACs……
They are
Adventurers….
Achievers….
Ambassadors….
They are American Soldiers.