Capstone Training News2 Story - O'Brien

Photo By Staff Sgt. Samuel O'Brien | SGT Casey Mears concludes a bugle rendition of TAPS as part of a Public Affairs video production, in a field near Sembach Air Base, Germany. TAPS, sometimes known as ‘Butterfield’s Lullaby’ or ‘Day is Done’ has been in use for military remembrances since 1848.  

UNITED STATES

10.25.2021

Story by Staff Sgt. Samuel O'Brien 

Regional Media Center AFN Europe

For Sergeant Casey Mears, this guitar is more than his hobby. It’s even more than his livelihood. It’s his salvation.
“The area I grew up in wasn’t the best. There are definitely worse places, but it was a little rough sometimes.”
Mears navigated this landscape by keeping mostly to himself. One day, he found a little help.
“I was coming home from school one day and I walked past an apartment building that was being renovated and there was a huge pile of trash out front.”
But one item in that pile stuck out as definitely not trash.
“I found, of all things, a trumpet. Someone threw out a trumpet.”
It was perfect. Small enough to carry around without calling attention to himself, easy to store at home. There was one significant problem, though.
“It was loud. In fact, when I found it, I blew into it to make sure it worked and immediately someone opened a window and yelled at me.”
As you can imagine, this made it hard to practice.
“I had to hide out at home. Wait for my parents to be gone. Practice as quietly as you can with a horn.”
The other problem was, with all of this being secret, he had no one to teach him.
“YouTube was still kind of a newer thing then so there weren’t a ton of instructional videos but I found a couple and I managed to teach myself all the notes.”
But secrets can only last so long.
“Yeah, my parents found it one day. But it was OK at that point because I was far enough along in learning it that I could show them I was serious.”
And his parents responded by paying for lessons.
“I didn’t think we had the money. We probably didn’t. But, they made it work, somehow.”
Mears went on about the rest of a normal childhood, taking his lessons, finishing school, thinking about college.
“College was kind of a plan for later. I knew we didn’t have the money now. The Army recruiters had come to our high school a few times but I never really thought too seriously about them.”
So instead he decided to get a job and play his music on the side for a little extra. Very little.
“It wasn’t working out. I was just scraping by and it wasn’t fun. I’d applied, finally, for a couple music schools who accepted me but offered no financial relief.”
Then he thought about the Army again.
“The idea of ending up in the infantry wasn’t ideal. I knew it was dangerous. But I also knew where I was wasn’t working out. At least the Army was a path.”
They got about three or four meetings in and then the recruiter asked him a question that would change everything.
“He was really starting to get to know me. As a person, not just as a recruit. And so he asked me about my hobbies.”
Mears told his recruiter about his music and how he’d taught himself to play. And his recruiter in turn, revealed that the Army had a band.
“I never would have thought that. I mean, now that I’ve been doing it this long it seems obvious, but for people who aren’t familiar with the military it’s probably not something they think about.”
Mears was now set on this. This was the path that he wanted to go down. However, there was one more hurdle.
“I had to audition. I had to try out to be in the Army.”
And clearly that worked out, because, now a Staff Sergeant, Mears has performed over 300 ceremonies in support of the U.S. Army Band.
“If you had told that kid who found a random trumpet lying around and stupidly put his mouth right on it that this is where he’d end up, he would not have believed you. But it just goes to show, there’s always a way.”
Go ahead, SGT Mears. Toot your own horn. You’ve earned it.

• Date Taken: 10.25.2021
• Date Posted: 10.25.2021 04:20
• Story ID: 407887
• Location: US