BANGOR — At the Naval Undersea Museum at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, a five-piece band rehearsed “Anchors Aweigh” with Rebecca Fitchett, 14, a student at North Kitsap High School, accompanying them on the flute.
The occasion was the retirement ceremony of Fitchett’s father, Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Fitchett, a submarine machinist’s mate. He had asked if his daughter could sit in with the band for the ceremony.
The quintet, officially known as Chinook Winds, features oboe, flute, clarinet, bassoon and French horn. It is one unit of Navy Band Northwest, a company of 34 musicians and one officer based at Bangor.
Navy Band Northwest is a common sight all over the Puget Sound region, playing at Naval Station Everett on community days, as part of Seafair during Fleet Week, and at any number of local community events.
The members of the band are top-notch musicians from all over the country.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Rachel Mortenson, the quintet’s oboist and leader, grew up in a military family but studied music at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University.
“I really wanted to play in orchestras,” she said.
The competition for a tiny number of available seats, however, can be intense.
Given her background, military life seemed a good option, she said, “between not having a job and wanting to play.”
Her first choice would have been to follow her father into the Army, but the Army wasn’t hiring oboists at the time, she said.
She joined the Navy four and a half years ago, and plays in the quintet, in another woodwind quartet, and in an informal chamber winds group as well.
“It worked out in my best interest because the Navy is a better job for musicians,” she said.
Navy Band Northwest is one of nine “fleet bands” in the U.S. Navy, which together have about 370 musicians.
The band’s mission includes playing at ceremonial events on base, such as retirement ceremonies and official receptions, as well as in public venues in a region that stretches from northern California to Alaska and eastward into the Rocky Mountain states.
There are also two elite bands, the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Naval Academy Band in Annapolis, Maryland, which recruit the best musicians from the nine fleet bands through competitive auditions.
Mortenson’s road to the Navy band is commonplace. Most of its members have college degrees in music, and some have graduate degrees.
But budgets are tight in the music industry, where even members of professional orchestras have to teach lessons in order to get by.
Compared with that, playing in a military band, with a regular paycheck, benefits and a federal pension, is a very good gig.
On May 15, Navy Band Northwest’s schedule included the retirement ceremony at the museum and Viking Fest in downtown Poulsbo.
At the same time, the members of Passage, the Navy band’s pop-rock group, were loading up their gear to play the Portland Rock’n’Roll Half-Marathon on May 17.
It’s a typical work day, said Lt. Bruce Mansfield, director of Navy Band Northwest. When not performing, the sailors spend time practicing, rehearsing or performing administrative duties.
“Generally the public will see them play and not realize they have been working all day,” Mansfield said.
There have been military bands as long as there have been militaries, and over the centuries they have evolved from drum-and-fife corps who led troops into battle to the modern orchestras that play in more controlled settings, said Jari Villanueva, a retired Air Force Band trumpeter, bugler and historian of military brass bands.
“The military bands today, even though they’ve been downsized, still do a tremendous job bringing music to the troops on the front lines,” he said.
Navy Band Northwest was officially commissioned in 1953 and was stationed at Naval Air Station Seattle at Sand Point until that base closed in 1995 and moved to Bangor.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Roy Brown, the assistant director of Navy Band Northwest, said the group’s various ensembles are on track to be on the road for four months this year, playing for both military and civilian audiences.
Occasionally, musicians from some fleet bands will deploy overseas.
“To park a destroyer off the coast of a country is a statement, and a pretty big statement,” Brown said. “To send in a band to perform in a community, it has an impact that you can’t get from other aspects of the military.
“We’re a form of soft power that can go into these countries and win the hearts and minds you hear about,” he said.
Brown, a trombonist, graduated from the University of California at Riverside and wanted to continue playing. He played in the Marine Corps for eight years before coming to the Navy 12 years ago.
“Not only do I have an opportunity to be a professional musician, I have the opportunity to serve my country and be a part of that proud tradition,” Brown said.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Sam Rumpak, the bassoonist in the wind ensemble, took a different route to the Navy.
He also started out in the Marine Corps band right out of high school, but then left the service for culinary school and worked as a cook for more than seven years.
“Then I got married and I realized it wasn’t the kind of lifestyle my wife and I wanted,” Rumpak said. “We enjoy our weekends and holidays. And it wasn’t paying the bills.”
He picked up the bassoon again and joined the Navy in 2012. He now has two children at home and is working toward his bachelor’s degree.
“I’ve been able to provide for my family. I wouldn’t have been able to do this in my previous career,” Rumpak said.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonah David’s path to the Navy was more circuitous than most. He studied at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, was a professional reggae and jazz drummer for years, and with Roots Tonic, recorded three albums backing Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu. Two of the albums went gold and one of them, “Youth,” was nominated for a Grammy Award.
David had a five-year run with the band, touring constantly, playing sold-out shows and appearing on national television.
But money was always tight. After he left Roots Tonic, he would still get calls for gigs, but as he entered his 30s, he knew he’d have to come up with another plan.
“I started getting these tours again. I was going on these auditions, I was lying about my age,” David said.
He married an Air Force officer, but his tattoos kept him out of the Air Force band. The Navy didn’t mind his ink, however, and David enlisted five years ago.
He is now awaiting his second big break: transfer orders to the Naval Academy Band after he passed an extremely competitive audition.
In the Navy, David has found a calling that transcends his love of music.
“We go out there to remind people that service members are putting their lives on the line. That’s it for me, at least,” said the drummer who once played sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden.
“There is nothing more meaningful to play the bass drum in the ceremonial band and see a vet force himself up out of his seat when the music starts. I start to cry every time,” David said.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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