MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The Christmas season is upon us again which means the annual Glenn Miller Christmas concert is almost here.
The “Airmen of Note” of the United Stated Air Force Band are scheduled to perform at the Davis Theater on the Troy University Montgomery campus, Dec. 13, beginning at 7 p.m.
In December of 1942, the United States was at war and Capt. Glenn Miller, who was a well-known musician and band leader placed his music career on hold to serve in the US Army Air Force (AAF).
In 1982, Air University revived the concert for its fortieth anniversary. Air University and the city of Montgomery jointly sponsored a free Christmas concert to commemorate Miller’s 1942 event. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the first Glenn Miller concert.
When war came to the United States on December 7, 1941, Miller wanted to use his musical talents for the war effort. However, his age, 38, eyesight meant he would not be drafted. He managed to obtain a commission in the AAF on November 23, 1942. Miller was assigned to Maxwell Field, Alabama.
He discovered that Maxwell had a dance band, called “The Rhythmaires,” with Jerry Yelverton, a former member of Miller’s prewar orchestra, as one of its musicians. With Miller playing trombone, the band strove to positively affect morale.
The band played five times during Miller’s four weeks at Maxwell, culminating with the Christmas Eve concert. The Rhythmaires played several songs arranged by Miller and “Alabamy Bound,” played in the Miller Big Band style. Five days later, he was on his way to the AAF Training Command’s basic training center at Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In route to his new assignment, Miller stopped over at the Headquarters AAF Technical Training Command at Knollwood Field, North Carolina, to see Major General Walter R. Weaver, commander of the AAF Technical Training Command and former commander of Maxwell Field. Miller recommended to General Weaver that the AAF utilize former professional musicians, now assigned the AAF, to form military bands at its installations. These bands would provide musical programs for the trainees and would better utilize musician’s talents for the war effort. By the end of the war, the AAF had formed over a hundred such installation bands.
In March 1943, Miller assembled a group of top musicians to form the recently activated 418th AAF Band under Miller’s command at the AAF training center at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. From January to May 1944, he produced “Victory” records for distribution to US military installations throughout the country and gave radio broadcasts to military installations in the northeastern United States.
Following the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, Miller persuaded General Henry “Hap” Arnold, the AAF Commanding General, to allow him to take a select group of band musicians to England to play for the troops. This band, officially organized as the Casual Detachment (Glenn Miller Band), arrived in England in mid-June 1944.
“Glenn Miller’s Band” gave 300 live performances in England and 500 radio broadcasts to Allied troops on the continent. In December, now-Major Miller obtained approval to give live performances to the troops in recently liberated Paris, France. On December 15, 1944, he departed England to make preliminary arrangements for the band that would follow. Unfortunately, the aircraft with Miller aboard disappeared over the English Channel, and Glenn Miller is still officially listed as “missing in action.”
Glenn Miller’s “Big Band” sound provided a holiday morale boost to the airmen at Maxwell Field for the Christmas of 1942 and later a taste of home to thousands of American servicemen across the United States and later in Europe. In July 1944, Major General Jimmy Doolittle, the commander of Eighth Air Force, told Captain Miller, “Next to a letter from home, Captain Miller, your organization is the greatest morale builder in the European Theater of Operations.”
Since 1982, the Glenn Miller Christmas concert has been a Montgomery River Region holiday tradition. It commemorates Glenn Miller’s role in lifting the morale of American servicemen during one of America’s darkest hours and honored the hundreds of thousands of American troops who have served and still service in the U.S. Armed Forces.