NORMANDY, France — The young men of the St. Augustine High School Marching 100 raised their horns in solemn tribute Thursday on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
They also flexed their competitive spirit.
The famed New Orleans marching band was invited to perform at the Brittany American Cemetery as part of D-Day commemorations. On a crisp, clear day in northwest France, the 112 Purple Knights joined more than 1,200 other musicians and singers to honor the sacrifices of the Allied fighters who stormed Normandy’s beaches on June 6, 1944, commencing the bloody process of beating back the Nazi occupiers.
Fanning out from the cemetery’s stone chapel and flanked by thousands of marble crosses, the massed musicians rendered “Hymn To the Fallen” midway through Thursday’s hour-and-15-minute ceremony.
Resplendent in their woolen purple and gold uniforms, the Marching 100 followed the stately arrangement and stayed in time with the other bands.
But before the ceremony started, the Marching 100 couldn’t resist opening the throttle all the way for an impromptu, full-blast, marching band arrangement of the Jonas Brothers’ “Sail Away.” Attendees and other musicians, unaccustomed to the Marching 100’s poise and power, recorded the rehearsal on cellphones and applauded when it was over.
An unintended consequence was that “Sail Away” drowned out the bagpipe band that was warming up nearby.
“They’re not used to seeing bands like us,” Marching 100 band director Ray Johnson Sr. said later. “I hope the director of that group didn’t think it was anything personal.”
Ready to play
The Marching 100 was eager to play for the first time since arriving in France on Tuesday morning. After touring the World War II monuments at Arromanches that afternoon, then Omaha Beach — the setting for some of D-Day’s bloodiest fighting on June 6, 1944 — on Wednesday, it was time to get to work.
The band members, in full uniform, assembled in the lobby of their hotel in Deauville at 4:45 a.m. Thursday. Most dozed off during the two-plus hour ride aboard three chartered buses to the Brittany American Cemetery.
With 4,400 gravesites and more than 500 names of the missing memorialized on a terrace wall, it is smaller than the Normandy American Cemetery, which also hosted an 80th-anniversary ceremony on Thursday, attended by U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.
St. Augustine Marching 100 horn player Emmanuel Labeaux, center, and Ryan Jennings pray at a cross where an American soldier is buried at the American Cemetery near St. James, France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, June 6, 2024. The young musicians walked around the cemetery before their performance. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Before the ceremony at the Brittany cemetery, the Purple Knights roamed among the white granite crosses and occasional Stars of David arrayed in tidy rows across the green lawn. Many of the memorialized men were not much older than the high school musicians when they died.
Newly graduated St. Aug drum major Elon Brunus realized the names etched on the white markers represented his peers of a previous generation.
“I’m 18,” Brunus said. “I would have definitely been sent off” to war.
The Rev. Tony Ricard, the leader of St. Aug’s campus ministry, put the day in perspective as the school's musicians stood at parade rest.
“All the crosses that are laid here are men whose lives were sacrificed so that we could be free,” Ricard said. “When you stand here, don’t miss what you get to see. Don’t miss this opportunity. So let’s bring our spirit from 2600 (A.P. Tureaud Ave., St. Aug’s address) all the way to Normandy.”
Seeing Mont-Saint-Michel
Historic Programs, the nonprofit that produced the ceremony, recruited the bands who performed. They included Alabama’s Boaz High School Pirates, the Upper Chesapeake Community Band, the Chicago Police Department’s Pipes & Drums and Australia’s Riverwood Hornets.
Jude Villavaso, a rising 10th grader from St. Augustine High School who is fluent in French, stands up as patriotic songs are sung by the crowd gathered at the American Cemetery near St. James, France, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Villavaso delivered the welcoming remarks in French and English. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Several French officials spoke during the ceremony. St. Augustine rising sophomore Jude Villavaso delivered welcoming remarks in both French and English.
“While reflecting on what occurred on D-Day, I realized there are many similarities between those that fought here and the values instilled in us at my school,” Villavaso said. “Values such as selflessness, courage, loyalty and brotherhood are what these servicemen displayed on June 6, 1944.”
One of the three World War II veterans present immediately got up from his wheelchair to shake Villavaso’s hand.
The commemoration concluded with more than 150 voices of four combined choral groups blending for one final salute.
Members of the St. Augustine Marching 100 watch as World War II veterans are introduced at the American Cemetery near St. James, France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday, June 6, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Back on their buses, the members of the Marching 100 and the 40 or so staff members, chaperones and guests accompanying them enjoyed a bag lunch of baguettes, chips and cookies.
They were scheduled to spend the afternoon exploring Mont-Saint-Michel, the ancient monastery built atop a towering rock of a tidal island that erupts from an otherwise flat coastal plain. When the tide comes in, Mont-Saint-Michel is surrounded by seawater and only accessible by an elevated pedestrian bridge.
The parking lot is 2 miles away. Given the option of walking or riding a shuttle bus, the Marching 100 voted for the bus.
The shuttle line was so long that most ended up walking anyway. Those who had worn purple T-shirts, as instructed, under their band uniforms were allowed to shed their heavy uniform jackets.
But after making the 35-minute trek to the rock, then trying to assemble for a group photo, there was little time left to ascend Mont-Saint-Michel.
So the Purple Knights, far less formally than they had at the cemetery, turned around and marched back to the parking lot.
Within minutes of embarking on the nearly 3-hour bus ride back to Deauville, most musicians, and many chaperones, were sound asleep.
'Let's do better'
The Marching 100’s Friday schedule includes performances in the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise and at the Normandy American Cemetery. On Saturday, they’ll march in a parade in Sainte-Mere-Eglise. On Sunday, they’ll perform at the Jardin d'Acclimatation amusement park in Paris.
After dinner at the hotel Thursday, Johnson called a band meeting. He wasn’t entirely satisfied with the Brittany cemetery performance. The music was fine, he said.
Attendees “heard the best band in the land. But guess what they saw? A band that could have been undisciplined. A band that didn’t know how to stand still.
“When it comes to business, we cannot miss the opportunity.”
Exhaustion, he recognized, was a factor. Thanks to the overnight flight, the pre-dawn wake-up call and general horsing around, the teenagers had gotten very little sleep.
“We know y’all were tired,” Johnson said. “If you’re running around the hotel all night, clowning around ... what do you think is going to happen?
“Tomorrow, let’s do better. Tomorrow, we’re gonna take that stage and show them the best.”
