The sound of freedom bothers neighbors
New Jersey News 12 reports that a few of the neighbors of Weapons Station Earle are complaining about the raising and lowering of the colors there;
Those living near Weapons Station Earle’s waterfront in Middletown at 8 a.m. hear the “Call to Colors” followed by “The Star-Spangled Banner” when the base raises its flag. A similar ceremony takes place at sunset when the flag is lowered.
Base spokesman Michael Brady tells the Asbury Park Press a new public address system was installed during the summer. Brady says officials are using sound meters to adjust the volume.
Resident Bob Wille questions why someone not in the military should have to wake up to reveille.
In the comments (which are mostly worth the read), less irritated neighbors write that reveille is sounded at 8 AM – a few hours later than I’m accustomed to. But if Mr Wille is being awakened at 8AM, why is he wasting so much daylight? He should get a job.
Not all of the neighbors are complaining, obviously according to NJ.com;
Andrew Lucina, a Korean War veteran who has lived near the base for 55 years, told the Asbury Park Press that he looks forward to hearing the music each day and doesn’t feel sorry for those who might be sleeping at that time.
“Play it as loud as they want,” Lucina said.
“I was willing to die for that flag,” he said, pointing to an American Flag he flies in front of his house. “I’m not going to complain about The Star-Spangled Banner.”
I felt at home when I used to hear reveille while I lived across the street from the Old Soldiers’ home in DC. My neighbors looked at me strangely when I was caught outside at 5pm and I saluted in the direction of the bugle.
Category: Navy
It’s too bad that NWS Earle isn’t an Army installation. Many of those complaining would probably be “soiling their undies” each time the Post fired a cannon at reveille or retreat.
And this is for Mr. “Wee Willie”: I’m guessing NWS Earle was there long before you were, amigo. Don’t like the sound of freedom at 0800? Fine. Freaking move somewhere else.
Hondo beat me to it – one of the Freedoms Mr. Wille enjoys by those who wear and have worn the uniform of the Armed Forces besides his right to complain is his right to pack up his stuff and move on. Don’t let the moving truck’s door hit him in the ass!
Reveille is supposed to be at 05:00, not at 8AM. Geezo pete, I can and do get up without an alarm at 05:00.
What a lazy dude Mr. Willie is.
Ex-PH2: not on any Naval installation I’ve been on lately it isn’t – as Jonn indicates, the flag is raised with “The Star Spangled Banner” at 0800. Must be another of those “Naval Traditions” that Churchill loved so. (smile)
On Army installations, the flag is traditionally raised at sunrise, beginning with a cannon shot followed by the traditional “Reveille” bugle call. Damn, I kinda miss that sometimes.
All I can say is, they better not budge an inch. The beautiful bells in our cathedral have been silenced for most of the day, and are only rung, when they are rung at all, very softly, to the point where you can’t hear them even a blok away. It started with people complaining about the “noise.”
These days, my reveille is the sound of the coffee grinder, but it still goes off at 0500.
That should read “…block…” Sorry.
well, Mr. Wille, unless you moved in prior to 1943…. the base was there before you. Buy some earplugs if you work the nighht shift.
The morning news at my house starts at 5AM.
I always make sure there is tea left over from the night before. Takes too long to wait for it to come to fruition.
Ex-PH2: cold TEA vice coffee at 0500? Heresy! (smile)
Well it seems that Bobbie Boy has a Hobbie … Oh Joy … that started when he was 9 years old when he was gifted with an art kit … it sounds so cute and so childish.
http://bobwillepaintings.com/Home_Page.html
And because he is a pacifist painter … and the early morning sounds of freedom probably wakes him out of his gin or vodka induced slumber … he is a bit angry.
Well listen up SCUTTLEFU*K …
The sounds you hear are the engines of freedom coming to life for a good days work and such work that allows you to freely express your art …
SO … SHUT THE HELL UP!
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OH … one other. Just looking at the prices of his work might suggest he is not only a second rate citizen who has no regard for the military (for I have not seen any of his work in the local Exchanges) … but he is probably just an average so called artist who could not find a real job!
I grew up in a neighborhood between two Air Force bases. On one side we could hear the working dogs in their kennels barking all night if they smelled wildlife prowling outside. On the other side we had an air field that we were under the approach path for and had anything from T-38s to C-5s coming in over our house at all hours. I know the bases broadcast all the appropriate music at all the appropriate times, but it would have been a whisper in comparison.
BTW Navy is: 0800 and Sunset!
8am? Holy crap, I’ve already been at work two hours by then.
There may be two Robert (Bob) Willes in Middletown NJ but I doubt it. The one I found is an artist who paints and sculpts. http://bobwillepaintings.com/Page_5.html
His website boasts that he has most recently had “solo exhibitions at several Monmouth County libraries….” So, there you go. He’s an artiste, a sensitive soul. The National Anthem is interrupting his creative sleep time.
@11. Dammit Chief. I had too much lag time on this end. You were there while I was eyeballing the nail turtles and fish.
I am usually right on these things.
Look at this crap:
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Holy 2nd Grade Art Project Batman!
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This guy is living a tortured existance.
Can you imagine having to wake up at 1000 or 1100, on an early day, search for enough money underneath the couch cushions just to purchase a box of nails?
And then, after drinking gin and vodaka all day, attempt to glue all those nails together …
The pain and anguish …
Yeah, he should sue himself for nonsupport, at least.
I went to high school at Randolph AFB, Texas. That flight training in the middle of the night gets loud. And you know what? You can learn to sleep through it.
I have been a DOD civilian on an Air Force base for the past seven years. I look forward to reveille and retreat. However, some of my coworkers missed the block of instruction during the new employee orientation regarding customs and courtesies.
Two nut-sacs were at the PT track in front of me a while back when call to colors sounded, I waited until the first note of the national anthem sounded, faced the flag and placed my hand over my heart. The two aforementioned dog pecker gnats kept on trucking. I encouraged them to follow protocol. They laughed and stated “we are civilians, that shit doesn’t apply to us”. I kindly reminded them that they are on a military installation and it damn well does apply. I am sick of this shit.
Think he is mistaking “Revielle” with “Colors” ,,,, Reveille is sounded between 0500 and 0600, depending on the installation, and for the most part the units are so spread out that they don’t have one revielle played for the entire base. Each area has its own calls. To be honest, unless its a recruit or training unit most places don’t have revielle played at all. There are many units( especially support units) that have different “shifts” so some servicemen are hitting the rack while others are getting up. For the most part servicemen use an alarm clock or the DNCO makes the rounds.
Now “Colors” is a different matter. The Marine Corps and Navy raise the colors at 0800 each morning. I may be wrong but I assumed the Army did it the same way, not at sunrise or revielle. The flag is lowered at when the sun sets, which of course changes daily.
Wille is like the people here in SoCal who buy a new tract house in a brand-new development next to a dairy farm. They check out the house, decide to buy, notice the smell of cow shit on the wind, move in, then complain about the smell of cow shit and sue the dairy out of business. Ya know, asshole, the dairy’s only been there for 86 years, it ain’t like you didn’t notice it when you bought the Goddamn house.
The same variety of asswipes moved into the housing tracts around MCAS Miramar when those were put up in the late 90s/early 2000s. They immediately started bitching about the aircraft noise. They even went so far as to start a (unsuccessful) radio & TV ad campaign to have the base closed.
I’ve worked at fire stations where the neighbors complain about the radio speakers and quickcall alarm in the middle of the fucking day!
Bottom line: fuck ’em.
08:00 for Navy reveille, Master Chief? Oh, please, I was at work by 07:00, at NPC and Great Lakes both.
Now, raising the flag at 8AM — that’s a different story.
As for Mr. Willie, his landscapes and boats are nice paintings, but the greens are so contrasty and snappy they could bite you on the wrist and draw blood. He needs to tone that down a bit**, and add a little something called ‘local color’ (color in the shadows) to his images. But boats in drydock and hangin’ in the river delta are NOT seascapes. They are boats in the delta. He has incorrectly identified them.
** He needs to tone that down a LOT actually; go further into earth tones and use broken color to create the effect he’s after. Natural greens are NOT that vehemently in-your-face permanent GREEN and cinnabar green. He should learn to see real colors in nature. His use of pure color for representational painting is somewhat excessive and not consistent. His work is similar to the Sonoma County art style, so I’d guess he took a few workshops out there.
Give him a break. He’s probably retired, maybe forced into it at the office door, found himself something to do to keep busy and stays up until 2AM working on it. His paintings are nice, but not memorable, and the prices are a bit inflated, but it’s his work, so who are you to criticize him?
Besides, you guys wouldn’t like my paintings, either, so get over yourselves.
So he doesn’t like military music on the PA system at 8AM? Well, I have no sympathy for that, because the base was there before he was. It isn’t the same thing as O’Hare confiscating homes to build a new runway that is now noisier than the El at 2AM. All he has to do is adjust his hours or wear earplugs.
‘Reveille’ takes a minute, right? If I can ignore fire and cop sirens on Clark Street for 30 years at 2AM, he can make an adjustment, too.
EX-PH2. Are you calling me out. And I thought we were friends. I know you to be hottest, smartest, most pithy and dangerous for Navy Women ever to cross a Quarterdeck.
Colors in the Navy are conducted @ 0800.
Reveilee “drop your cocks and grab your socks” has been in recent history, the norm @ 0600.
Big difference.
Are we still friends?
Naval Stations don’t sound Reveille.
Naval Stations sound Colors.
Ships different story.
The first to post the four significant daily soundings germain to discussion wins a 1 Million Dollars … PERIOD!
BTW. EX-PH2 love the way you went breakdown on his color by numbers stuff.
He is a 9 year old as per his web site.
MCPO / EX-PH2, they could have a BMOW piping everything all day.
Those whiney Bennies need to move back to Staten Island!
@ 29 Olaf.
No one ever in human history has ever “moved back to Staten Island”.
Seriously, Google it!
In fact George Washington avoided it!
MCPO: can’t really speak for the Navy. But in the Army, the top 4 today would probably be Reveille, Mess Call, Retreat (end of duty day, immediately followed by To the Color during lowering of the Colors), and Call to Quarters (or possibly Taps or Tatoo). They’re all recognized martial bugle calls.
There are a total of 23 bugle calls traditionally used by the Army. The full sequence of daily calls often numbered 25, with Mess Call repeated 3x (morning, noon, evening – once for each meal). Many are still used today, albeit in training environments or during ceremonies.
http://www.music.army.mil/music/buglecalls/
Dear Mr. Wille,
Pound sand. Rinse. Dry. Repeat.
Hondo you have just earned 1 Million ACA dollars … Period.
In the Navy it is:
0600 Rev
0800 Colors
Sunset Colors
2200 Taps
Well played my Olive Drab Brother from another Mother!
The bugler was the equivalent of an RTO today. There were several calls that had tactical signifigance. Off the top of my head there were calls to put out skirmishers, fix bayonets, rally on the colors, advance, retreat and to muster officers with the CO.
When I did Civil War reenactments nothing chapped my ass worse than my fellow reenactors trying to tell spectators that the musicians ( namely drummers and buglers) were often underage boys. Musicians were paid more than privates and had to be at the beck and call of the commander at all times, and keep their wits about them while they relayed the commands via their instruments, usually under fire.
Don’t even get me started on little kids being color bearers,,,,
Master Chief, of course we are still friends. For your (and everyone else’s) enlightenment, at RTC(W) Bainbridge (and later RTC Orlando) at 05:00 hours daily over the PA system, there was no bugle call but some loud-mouthed cow would blast the following: ‘REVEILLE! REVEILLE! 0500 REVEILLE! UP AND AT ‘EM, LADIES! STAND TO!’ I did that myself once, down in Orlando. (I hated that place. Now it’s full of sinkholes in growing numbers.:)) A most unpleasant experience, to say the least, but it does yank you awake. Mr. Willie (giggling over that name, unfortunately) has not learned to observe the natural world accurately. His skies are not reflective of the way the sky looks in real observation. There is no solid color. The place where the sun reposes is pale and warm, the horizon is always a haze fading to gray or pale blue, and where the sun is NOT hanging, the sky is cold in tone and dark. On a clear, sunny day, with the sun at a 45 degree angle, the bowl of the sky overhead will not be ultramarine blue, as Willie has it. It will be closer to cobalt blue with a bit of Prussian blue mixed in, and unless the time of day is approaching late afternoon or sunset, the possibility of red in the sky is extremely unlikely. The sky is decidedly NOT static at all, any more than is water. It is extremely dynamic at all times. In fact, the two best paintings on his paintings page are ‘Morning Mist’ and ‘Blackbirds on a Fence Rail’ (they’re really crows, not blackbirds), because he’s being less careful to splash color around the way he was told to do in those workshops. So, yeah, he actually IS painting by the numbers instead of by the seat of his pants, which is how I was taught. Dammit, if you’re gonna paint pictures, pick up a house painting brush, get a big, barn-sized canvas, and start slapping the paint on the canvas. Don’t be so damned careful and precise. Sounds heard on a ship: Bosun’s whistle; ship’s… Read more »
@34
Back in the Legions, to even be considered as a possible candidate to carry the Eagle, you had to be a Jedi Master legionnaire, of well witnessed courage, with beaucoup time at the sharp end with you gladius.
As I recall, the same still held true until at least the Civil War for us. The Color Bearer was what we would call today, “Critical Personnel.” Yes?
Camp Parks in the bay area has a range that saw a lot of use by the reserve component. That is, until the city of Dublin decided it would be great to allow brand new homes right behind the friggin’ range. No more weapons qual at Camp Parks!
The two most welcome commands in my day were “Field Music of the Guard, sound Pay Call” and “Sound Liberty Call!”
Shipley needs that nail fish for his wall
@39: the Hair is on a solo stealth mission to liberate one for the Senior Chief and the Mrs.
@35: great art critique. I think we’ve finally found the perfect artist to provide the art for Maison Wickless!
Puts me in mind of the libidiots who moved in next door to the USS Constallation (Constitution) harbor, and then had the temerity (balls) to bitch when the ship fired its cannon every day.
I am going to some day buy a seagoing tug to live on, christen her Gravel Gertie, and buy a harbor cannon to fire whenever I’ve been out on Lake Michigan.
The harbor cannon is a 19th century handheld cannon that was fired to alert the harbor master that a ship was in port, and ready for inspection. Powder firing only, no balls.
You can always count on libbies to provide comic relief. Not only do they admit to it but actually brag about being so stupid that they buy land near an airport not realizing that airplanes make noise – then they expect them to quit just because their spoiled egos demand it.
Same deal here. Of course, if the audio system has indeed been recently altered, I can understand a few adverse reactions to a marked increase in volume. Being good neighbors, that will be addressed, if it has not already been.
For the record, I consider ‘pithy’ to be the highest compliment I have ever received.
While I understand the people who are giving Mr. Wille the business; we must also entertain the possibility that some people work at night and are sleeping at 0800????
OK … EX-PH2 … you too have earned 1 million ACA dollars … PERIOD!
Oh Bobbie Boy is going to regret talking smack about the sound of freedom. When ever anyone Al Gores his web address … EX-PH2 scathing critique will pop up …
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The up side for Bobbie Oh Boy … plenty of web traffic.
The down side for Bobbie Oh Boy … not the traffic he was originally seeking!
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Everyone wander on over here: http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=36950&cpage=4#comment-1017001
psul the uncool is at it again.