MP plays the trumpet, cheers fellow Soldiers

Photo By Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky | Spc. Lance Love, 153rd Military Police Company, Delaware City, Del., Army National Guard, plays the trumpet for his fellow Soldiers, Nov. 12, at Patrol Base Red, Iraq. Love, who compares himself to a human jukebox, said he tries to accommodate his fellow Soldiers by playing songs they ask to hear. Common songs include TV themes, pop songs and video game music.  

ISKANDARIYAH, IRAQ

11.15.2007

Story by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky 

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs

Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky
2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. PAO

FOB KALSU, Iraq – When most Soldiers pick up their brass, they are often grabbing spent bullet cases on the range. However, for Spc. Lance Love, 153rd Military Police Company, Delaware City, Del., Army National Guard, currently attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, picking up the brass means pulling out his trumpet.

Love, who has been playing the trumpet for 11 years, said he brought his trumpet simply to give him something to do while deployed.

Love said that he didn't want to bring a Playstation Portable to Iraq. He wanted something different.

While he wears the same uniform as the rest of his fellow Guardsmen, his unique talent makes him stand out among his peers, giving him a celebrity-like status in his company.

"I think Love is fabulous," Spc. Brittney Poore said. "He knows how to make everyone smile."

Smiles most often come at 5 p.m., when Love grabs his trumpet and plays reveille for the Soldiers.

While the most common request for Love is military tunes, his talent spreads to all genres of music.

"I can usually hear a tune and pick it up," Love said.

Thus, it isn't uncommon to hear TV themes such as the "A-Team", video-game tunes like "Super Mario Brothers" and "Zelda," or pop songs like "It's a Hard Knock Life."

Love, who compares himself to a human jukebox, said - like a jukebox - he tries to accommodate his fellow Soldiers by playing songs they ask to hear.

"There's nothing like hearing an old tune to get you riled up," he said.

In boosting his fellow Soldiers' morale, Love has also helped bring his platoon closer together. Like the random notes played through his instrument, Love's talent has brought the individual members of his unit into a cohesive group.

"It adds to what is going on, it makes us closer, and makes our time together more fun," Poore said.

It also helps motivate others to want to improve themselves.

Spc. Rawmean Davis, who has never played an instrument in his 30 years, said seeing Davis play motivated him to want to pick up the skill.

"You need something to do with your time," he said. "I wanted to learn Spanish but didn't have time."

However, he said, because of Love's personality he is finding the time to take up the trumpet.

"Love is an excellent teacher, motivator," Davis said, noting that he practices everyday with Love on technique.

In working with Love, Davis said it helps take his mind off the stress and worries of deployment.

"Music soothes the savage beast. You soothe yourself and the people around you," he said.

Hearing that his skills have a soothing effect was the greatest compliment Love said he ever received. Love described one day at home in church, before his father, Harold Thomas, preached to the congregation, Love played his trumpet. After the service, Love said many people came and complimented him, saying they felt anointed and soothed.

Though the walls surrounding him in Iraq are blast walls instead of church walls, the calming notes of Love's trumpet still carry the same tune of peace and comfort in this war-torn country.

"Love is the morale (of the unit)," Spc. Jarrod Pitts said. "When things are down, Love picks up that trumpet and picks us back up."

• Date Taken: 11.15.2007
• Date Posted: 11.19.2007 11:20
• Story ID: 14019
• Location: ISKANDARIYAH, IQ