Public invited to Marine Corps Battle Color Detachment show
The public will have one more opportunity this evening to see the U.S. Marine Corps Battle Color Detachment, in what will be its last performance before leaving Yuma.
The ceremonial unit, which is based out of the historic Marine Barracks Washington features “The Commandant’s Own” United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps, the Silent Drill Platoon and the Official Color Guard of the Marine Corps.
According to Cpl. Andre Bastian, who is also the detachment’s Master of Ceremonies, the free performance will be at 7 p.m. at the Irv Pallack Field, on the grounds of Kofa High School. “Everywhere we go we try to incorporate as many civilian performances as we can,” Bastian said. “It is part of our mission, to inspire and entertain.”
The Battle Color Detachment has already performed twice, both of which were on Thursday. One was on the parade grounds at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, the other later that evening at Veterans Memorial Stadium at Gila Ridge High School.
Bastian explained that in addition to being the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ Ceremonial Maneuver Element, the highly-skilled unit appears in hundreds of ceremonies around the world each year to showcase the pride, ceremonial precision and Esprit de Corps of the Marines Corps.
Those who attend a performance, he said, can expect to see toptier musicians from the Drum and Bugle Corps marching in unison to create various formations while performing a variety of patriotic musical selections.
They will also get to witness the highly skilled, 24-man Silent Drill Platoon, using hand-polished, 10 1/2-pound, M-1 Grand rifles with fixed bayonets, performing intricate drills, including difficult rifle spins and exchanges.
And finally, the fourmember Marine Corps Color Guard will carry the Corps’ official Battle Colors, commemorating every battle the Marine Corps has fought since the American Revolution.
“For a lot of people it might be the first and only time they will ever get to see those streamers in one place,” Bastian said. “We are entrusted with the custody of those battle colors. That is the crux of what the detachment is about.”
Bastion added that there are only so many groups of those streamers in existence, with one group being kept at the Marine Barracks Washington D.C., another at the Pentagon, and one at the White House.
Each year the Battle Color Detachment comes to MCAS Yuma for three to four weeks of training before embarking on a tour of West Coast installations and communities. Other stops include Ontario, California; and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms.
The Battle Color Detachment will also perform at the Wings Over South Texas Air Show, in Kingsville, Texas, before returning to Washington DC.
This makes Bastian’s third trip to Yuma. While he looks forward to coming here each year, he remembers not knowing what to expect during his first performance at Kofa High School.
He said just as the performance was about to begin he glanced toward the audience and saw a completely packed stadium.
“I had done parades, funerals and lots of other speaking engagements, but for the first time in a long time, I was nervous,” Bastian recalls. “I was like, all these people have come here just to see us.”
The meet-and-greets after every performance is one of the most important things the detachment does, with Bastian saying the one following their performance at Veterans Memorial Stadium last year was special.
“It meant so much to the detachment as a whole and brings up morale,” Bastian said. “Being able to do that really reminds us that people do like coming out to see us and sometime come out in droves.”
Typically meet-and-greets last about 10 to 15 minutes, but because so many people stayed afterward to talk with members of the detachment, it lasted about 45 minutes.