Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Dan Valadie not only gets to play music for a living, but also gets to do it while being part of something much bigger. Meet the drum major for the U.S. Air Force Band and find out how he feels about being a witness to many events, both festive and solemn, in the national capital region and elsewhere.

Video by Jon Poindexter, Department of Defense

Transcript

My name is Senior Master Sergeant Daniel Valadie, and I’m the drum major for the United States Air Force Band. My unit’s role in the ceremonial brass is to play all of the major ceremonies in the national capital region that the Air Force Band is tasked with, and that includes military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. We’ve gotten countless families through one of the hardest experience of their life of losing a loved one. We’ve been able to honor some of these foreign dignitaries as they come in. I came into the band in 1998 as a percussionist, and then 21 years later, it’s still great. We actually were able to march the colors onto the field for the Super Bowl 44, which was the Saints versus the Colts years ago; and I’m a Saints fan, so that was a really big deal for me. We’ve played for the arrival of Pope Benedict, which was pretty important. I played in five inaugural parades and led the band in an inaugural parade. I led the band for, uh, the state funeral of President Bush recently. But I actually never thought I would be able to be in a playing organization, and it just so happened that there was a series of serendipitous events that kind of led me here. It allows you to put down roots while still being around a bunch of great musicians and great players, and being able to, you know, do what you love.