Cuts force Band of Golden West to stay close to home

Members of the Band of the Golden West play before the start of a ceremony last year at Travis Air Force Base. (Brad Zweerink/Daily Republic file 2012)

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE — The Air Force Band of the Band of the Golden West will stay close to home for its performances for a while because of the automatic federal spending cuts.

The silver lining is that the band now has open dates that it would love to fill with local and regional performances.

Because the band can’t travel out of the area, it is going to focus on reaching out to the local area and increase its support on base, according to the band’s public information officer.

Travis announced that the band has restricted its performances to the local area and cannot support any requests for performances in the areas it has traveled to in the past – including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and most other parts of California.

That forced the band to cancel events that would have taken it to locations ranging from Seattle to Pismo Beach and Solvang this month. Its Chamber Players are still scheduled to perform April 4 in Davis, April 6 in Suisun City and April 7 in Vallejo while the Commanders Jazz Ensemble will perform April 12 in Yountville, April 13 in Rohnert Park and April 14 in Stockton.

The Travis-based band is now looking for performance opportunities for all its groups, such as the Mobility rock band, the recently formed The Blue Yonders, The Commanders Jazz Ensemble, The Golden West Winds, Travis Brass and the Air Force Band of the Golden West concert band.

Anyone interested in requesting a performance by the Band of the Golden West can do so by going to www.bandofthegoldenwest.af.mil.

As for other base community events, Travis did not schedule an air show this year. But it has canceled aircraft flyovers and flights to other locations to be static displays at any community events or air shows.

These are some of the changes Travis had to implement since it got guidance from the Department of Defense early this year to cut expenses in advance of the implementation of automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration. The Department of Defense had to make $46 billion in cuts through Sept. 30.

Travis is still in the midst of getting more specific direction as to what other changes these cuts will require.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or ithompson@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ithompsondr.

Ian Thompson

Ian Thompson has worked for the Daily Republic longer than he cares to remember. A native of Oregon and a graduate of the University of Oregon, he pines for the motherland still. He covers Vacaville and Travis Air Force Base for the Daily Republic. He is an avid military history buff, wargamer and loves the great outdoors.

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