USAF RETIREDBAND DIRECTORSAND SUPERINTENDENTSSOCIETY

Reply to:Louis C. Kriebel1521 East Blvd.Maitland, FL 32751407 834-9446PresidentEditor

RETIREE BULLETIN - #3 - JUL 90

SPECIAL NOTICE/REMINDERS

RETIRED AIR FORCE MUSICIANS REUNION

This reunion will be 2,3,&4 Aug 90 at Cob Spgs, CO. Thecommittee has put together a fine program. Hope to see youthere.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

The Airmen of Note will celebrate their 40th birthday onSeptember 28, 1990. A special concert will take place at theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC.Special guest artists include - Sammy Nestico, Toni Tennilleand Tommy Newsom. All society members are invited.

Marge & Mac McGregor: We stay busy with golf and boating -

keeps us out of the Bingo parlors. We sent in ourreservations for the reunion - looking forward to seeingeveryone there.

Eleanor & Harry Meuser: We celebrate our 50th wedding ann-.iversary on 30 May, and will spend that happy day inHawaii. Since I played in the Honolulu Symphony andRoyal Hawaiian Band in 1944-45, it will be interestingto see who is still around.

Ccl. George S. HowardChief Emerituslinen Vincent4126 Hyde Park Ave.Lake Charles, LA 70605318 478-6091Vice PresidentTreasurer

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Trudy & George Roberts: Both doing good and George playinghorn in the DC area. They are kept busy visiting thefamily in both Phoenix, AZ & MD areas.

Mary & Russ Mitchell: Both doing fine; Russ still playing hisclarinet and also a member of a bowling team. Helps keephim in trim.

Helen & Ed D’Alfonso: Send their best to all their friends.Everyone in thefamily is fine.

Hope & George Attridge: Will be at the reunion this year. Heis hoping to get in a 4-some with Vince and some of theavid golfers.

Willie & Lyle Cooke: We have two spoiled redheaded children,Jason 9 yrs old and Becky 12 yrs old. We have beenmarried 14 yrs. We love it here in Alaska and plan tomake it our permanent home. Winters do get a bit longonce in a while, but the summers and fishing are thegreatest.

Claire & John Lemlin: Summer is coming along and it’s timefor me to get the golf clubs used, a couple of times aweek and take that boat out, once a week anyway. Getting some exercise from the rentals and some projectsaround the house like putting in a sky light in thebathroom and an extra closet downstairs. Next fallwhen the weather gets cool then I might consider gettingmy garage organized. Got a few trips coming up .. Chairmen’s conference for Credit Unions in Las Vegas firstweek of June. Regional conference for Sertoma in RoswellNew Mexico the week before that, a niece getting marriedthe week following the Reunion, so that means a trip toMaine... Credit Union National Association Conference inReno the last week of September... so it will be a quicksummer.

Susan & Donald Epstein: Retired from the USAF Oct 77. Followingretirement and for the next 8 yrs earned a BS degree ingerontology at the Un of So CA and a Doctoral Degree inclinical psychology at the Un of Nevada-Reno. Currently, Iam a licensed clinical pyschologist in both VA and NV, employedfull-time as a Staff Psychologist, Veterans AdministrationMedical Center, Hampton, VA, and hold a dual appointment as

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Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and BehavioralSciences, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA.Competing for equal time with my clinical and teachingresponsibilities are my wife Susan and our "dogkids"Barnabas, a 200 lb. English Mastiff, and his 150 lb.sister, Penelope. Despite the rather busy schedule,though, Susan and I and of course the "dogkids" manageto squeezein a moderately active leisure schedule.Current plan is to retire from the Veterans Admin. inabout ten more years and then attempt to stave off "oldage" via what I hope will be a happy meld of privatepractice and social activities.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS See New Roster for Addresses

Louise & Irv Dunham...Marie & Buster LaPlante...Naomi & HaroldRoberts... Linda & Frank Howanic... JoArrn & Ron Rawl.,,. Donna& Robby Roinson... Helen & John Nielsen... Willie & Lyle Cook...Susan & Donald Epstein... Fran & Jim Whittenton... Helen & Edwardo ‘Alfonso.

REQUEST FOR PRESENT ADDRESS:

Alexander Pop... Tom Goodwin... Robert Mason... Walter S Hoover

.c /J2Louis C. KriebelPresident/Editor

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GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITYColonel Arnald D. Gabriel USAF Ret

Chairman, Department of Music

Col. Arnald D. Gabriel, USAFRet is Chairman of the Department ofMusic at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He is conductor of theGMU Symphony Orchestra and the McLean VA Orchestra.

Col. Gabriel retired from the Air Force in 1985, following a distinguished 36 year career. He served as commander/conductor of the internationally known USAF Band, Symphony Orchestra and Singing Sergeants from1964 to 1985. One of the world’s most widly-traveled conductors, he hasled bands and orchestras in all 50 of the United States and in 46 countriesaround the globe.

Innovative educational concepts have been a feature of Gabriel’scareer. While Commander/conductor of The USAF Band in Wahington, DC,the Nations’s premier Air Force musical ensemble, Gabriel instituted a newtour concept by presenting free concerts as a ublic service. Under hisdirection, the band’s United States tours were overwhelming successes.

In 1966, Gabriel created the highly acclaimed Guest Artist Series,consisting of Sunday afternoon concerts in February and March in Washington’s4,800-seat Constitution Hall. Among the 135 artists who performed with theband before overflow audiences were Doc Severinsen, Meredith Wilson, PercyFaith, Aaron Copeland, Arthur Fiedler, Les Brown, Skitch Henderson, EdwardG. Robinson, William Conrad, Walter Cronkite, Jerry Lewis, Carmen Dragon,Karel Husa, George Shering and Shirley Temple Black.

Gabriel revitalized the band’s mission as America’s InternationalMusical Ambassadors by organizing two of the most outstanding foreign toursin the organization’s then 27-year history. First, he led The USAF Band &Singing Sergeants on a whirlwind 26-concert Latin American tour in 1968,applauded by more than 170,000 people. A year and a half later, Gabriel,the same two musical ensembles and the USAF Pipe Band, performed throughoutEurope.. .including first ever concerts in Spain, Portugal and Switzerland...before widly enthusiastic audiences.

Born in Cortland, New York, Gabriel entered the armed forces in 1943,serving as combat machine gunner with the US Army’s 29th Infantry Divisionin Europe during the second world war. Discharged in 1946, he entered IthacaCollege in New York, where he served as President of the Freshman HonorSociety and member of the Oracle Senior Honor Society, while completing hisundergraduate degree in music. In 1950, upon graduating Cum Laude, hisbiography appeared in Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

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Gabriel re-entered the military in 1951 as an Air Force WarrantOfficer bandleader, and was assigned to Sampson AFB, Geneva, NY. Duringthe next two year@, he commuted to Ithaca College, earning hi Mautor’Degree in music education in 1953.

Gabriel was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree by IthacaCollege in May 1989.

One of the first Air Force bandleaders to receive a direct commissionas a first Lieutenant, Gabriel was assigned to Langley AFB, VA as theCommand Band Supervisor of the Tactical Air Command and Commander/Conductorof the TAC Band, from 1955-58. In late 1958, he was appointed CommandBand Supervisor, USAFE and Commander/Conductor of the USAFE Band inWiesbaden, West Germany. During this five years in Europe, he organizeda NATO Band composed of military musicians from all 15 NATO nations. Healso assisted in the formation and training of the Danish Home Guard Bandof Copenhagen, receiving the Cross of St. George, one of the Danishgovernment’s highest awards, in recognition for his service.

In 1963, Gabriel was appointed Commander/Conductor of the USAF AcademyBand in Colorado, a position he held until the following year when he wasassigned to Washington DC as Commander/Conductor of The USAF Band at BoilingAFB.

As a result of Gabriel’s work with The USAF Band, Symphony Orchestraand Singing Sergeants, he has received numerous awards for his contributionsto music and to the improvement of American international relations throughmusic. While Conductor of the USAFE Band in 1963, Gabriel received one ofAmerica’s highest peacetime awards, the Legion of Merit, for improvinginternational relations through music in 24 countries in Europe, in the MiddleEast, and in North Africa. In 1968, he was awarded a second Legion of Meritfor the outstanding success of the band’s goodwill tour of Lation America.He received an unprecedented third Legion of Merit in 1985 for his 34 yearsof service to the USAF and for his tremendous contribution to music educationthroughout the United States.

Gabriel received the National Band Association’s first Citation ofExcellence in 1969, and award created by the NBA to recognize those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the musical and educationalsignificance of bands and band music. He also received Notre Dame University’sSt. Cecilia Award for contributions to the Catholic Band movement, the 1963Midwest Nationa Band Clinic’s Gold Medal of Honor, the 1973 Midwest NationalBand and Orchestra Clinics Gold Medal of Honor, the rerely-presented Phi MuAlpha Sinfonia’s National Citation for "significant contribution to musicin America, " and the Distinguished Service to Music Award from the NationalBand Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi.

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Among the hundreds of orchestras and bands Gabriel has conductedare the Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Sari 1ntonio, Memphis, Florida, GlendaleCA, York PA, and Fairfax VA Symphony Orchestras; the CarabinereBand and the Air Force Band of Italy; the Royal Hellenic Band of Athens,Greese; the Staff Music Corps of Bonn, West Germany; the National Bandof the Canadian Forces of Ottawa, Canada; and the Gamagori Band and theTokyo Orchestra of Japan.

Gabriel continues to receive invitations to appear as guestconductor at major state, regional and university music festivals acrossthe country, as well as to conduct outstanding school, college and municipal band and orchestras.

Past President of the prestigious 300-member American BandmastersAssociation, Gabriel now acts as contributing editor for The Instrumentalist magazine and serves on the advisory board of The SchoolMusician, Director and Teacher magazine. He is a member of the NationalBand Association, the National Association for American Composers &Conductors and is a National Arts Associate of Sigma Aplpha IotaNational Music Fraternity. He is also a life member of the AmericanLegion and The Veterans of Foregin Wars.

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