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Pasco Band Tunes Up For Bulge Tribute

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

TRINITY - Fred Faulkner thought he knew how to stay warm during the harshest winter.

The Chicago native learned otherwise after he volunteered to serve in World War II.
Faulkner was 17 in 1943, when anger over the war inspired him to join the Army. Less than two years later, he found himself in a mobile hut-like building in the Ardennes forest, where he helped intercept German radio transmissions during the infamous Battle of the Bulge.

"It was the coldest winter in Europe in 50 or 60 years," said Faulkner, 82, of Trinity in southwestern Pasco County. The fighting "kind of ramped down, but the cold never did. I never got over that cold."

A saxophone player with the Richey Concert Band, Faulkner said he didn't think the battle had been immortalized musically. So, he sat down at his piano several months ago and got to work.

In June, he asked Henry Fletcher, director of the Richey Concert Band, to help him finish the piece as a march.

The Richey Concert Band is expected to play the march Dec. 2 during a concert at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey. The band practiced the march for the first time this month.

Geoff Fox

Keyword: March, to see and hear a practice session of Fred Faulkner's march

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