Courtesy Photo | Gary Sinise, left, performs with the Lt. Dan Band at Memorial Stadium on Joint Base...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The soundtrack to the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump” runs the gamut of iconic songs spanning several decades. Similarly, Gary Sinise’s Lt. Dan Band provided an eclectic variety of musical genres from through the years, as the actor, known for his “Forrest Gump” role of Lt. Dan Taylor, entertained the troops from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in a USO free concert at Memorial Stadium on Lewis Main July 15.
The band and about 3,800 service members, veterans and families rocked out to songs from Disney to Tears for Fears, the Beatles and Bruno Mars.
Twelve-year-old Caitlyn Lauterberg sang along from the crowd as the band performed the Journey song, “Don’t Stop Believing,” but, the Zac Brown Band song, “Country Fried” was Caitlyn’s favorite song of the evening.
“I love ‘Country Fried,’” she said, as she and her siblings, Kyle, 11, Rhys, 9, and 10-month-old Derrick sat with their parents, Leah and Spc. Ryan Lauterberg, 51st Expeditionary Signal Battalion.
Leah Lauterberg said she was glad her family came to the event.
“I love that the kids can run around and be crazy — it’s definitely a family event,” she said. “And we love Gary Sinise.”
This wasn’t Sinise’s first USO concert at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. In fact, the actor and bass guitar player has performed nearly 100 USO concerts at various installations across the country and wherever service members are deployed.
Sinise’s love of the military prompted him in the 1980s to become an advocate for America’s service members and veterans. He joined with the Disabled American Veterans organization in the 1990s, raising awareness and support for wounded service members.
In 2003, after being part of several USO handshake tours, that included a trip to Iraq, he formed the Lt. Dan Band and performed on many more USO tours. Sinise formed the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011 as a way to expand on his individual humanitarian efforts.
During the JBLM concert, Sinise shared a little of his family’s proud military heritage. He told of his Uncle Jack, a navigator on a B-17 bomber during World War II and his Uncle Jerry, who was on a ship in the Pacific when the Japanese surrendered. His dad also served in the Navy during the Korean War, and his wife’s two brothers fought in Vietnam.
Sinise took time during the event for the children, bringing many on stage for the high energy Rascal Flatts song, “Life is a Highway,” known to the kids from Disney’s “Cars” movies.
“There’s a little something for everybody here in our show,” Sinise said, as he introduced another song in the two-hour lineup of music.
Sinise enjoys the wide variety in the songs his band performs.
“I couldn’t pick a favorite part; I love it all,” he said.
He also enjoys playing bass guitar, an instrument he has honed since his middle school band days growing up in Illinois.
“I started playing in school band in the sixth-grade and all through high school, but I didn’t really pick my guitar up again until the 1990s,” he said.
Playing his bass and forming the band was a way to help with the mission, Sinise said. Caring for and entertaining veterans and service members is his goal.
“I knew I had to do more when the troops started deploying,” he said of deployments following 9-11.
Sinise and his band also performed at the Naval Station Whidbey Island Friday, then, after the JBLM show, he was scheduled to perform at a private corporate fundraiser in Colorado Springs the next day.
Retired Col. Mary Prophit, who lives near Morton, Wash., attended the concert with her friend, Sylvia Draper, an employee at the American Lake Veterans Hospital. It was Draper’s first time to hear the band, but Prophit has experienced first hand Sinise’s caring spirit.
“I met Gary when I was deployed in Iraq; it was in 2006 during Operation Iraqi Children, and I met him through the USO,” she said. “I told them what I needed and he got me all the school supplies; he’s got to be the most generous man.”
| Date Taken: | 07.21.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 07.21.2017 17:47 |
| Story ID: | 242121 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 97 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Lt. Dan Band rocks JBLM, by Ruth Kingsland, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
