Don't strike down the band

The bean counters want to strike down the band.

The McCook Daily Gazette has had the honor of sponsoring local appearances of the U.S. Air Force Heartland of America Band, but if the accountants have their way, that might not happen again.

Founded in 1943 and now based at Offutt Air Force Base, the 53-member band, including a main concert orchestra and side groups such as wind ensembles, gave nearly 600 concerts last year throughout the Heartland -- Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. Its country-rock group also made a month-long tour of Iraq and the Middle East earlier this year.

But the Air Force needs to modernize, and plans to cut 23,000 personnel by a year from October, including 250 musicians in three of the Air Force's 12 active-duty bands.

The Omaha band's $732,000 budget would instead go toward specialties, and research and development of new technologies, according to an Air Force spokeswoman.

"We used to joke that the cost of one hour of fuel for a B-52 is about the annual budget for the whole band," joked Dan Schmidt, a professor of music at Hastings College and former Heartland band musician.

With the price of fuel these days, they'd probably have to revise the joke.

We're all for saving as many taxpayer dollars as possible, and heaven knows there are plenty of them wasted in any military budget in peacetime, not to mention a time of military operations like the ones under way in Iraq.

And one might have to question the effectiveness of a big band as a recruiting device when recruits are more likely to listen to punk bands than Glenn Miller on the iPods.

But the band has done a good job with keeping up with musical trends as well as tying into patriotic traditions connecting today's service personnel with their parents and grandparents.

For McCook, with our former Army Air Base, and Nebraska, with our Strategic Air Command roots and now the U.S. Strategic Command, a special connection with that branch of the military exists.

Emotional aspects of duty and service to country aren't something that can fit into a blank on a spreadsheet.

As long as the Air Force depends on people to perform its mission, institutions like the Heartland of America Band will have an important role.