 good morning everyone what a beautiful day to gather together and what a tremendous crowd to honor our March King. We gather here today on hallowed ground the final resting place of one of our own the most famous musician of the Marine Corps and certainly one of the most iconic of all American musicians John Philip Sousa. He was laid rest here in Congressional Cemetery on March the 10th bringing to close an illustrious career that began as a Marine Corps apprentice musician and ended as the internationally renowned March King. The women and men of the United States Marine Band are here today to commemorate his life and his legacy. I'd like to begin by thanking Congressional Cemetery and their staff for their steadfast support of this event and for tending to this site this historic site year-round. Thank you Congressional Cemetery. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge any relatives of John Philip Sousa who are here today or watching from home. Would you please stand and be recognized. Thank you. You honor us being here today sir. Finally to all former members of the Marine Band in attendance and for all the former members of the Marine Band watching from home. Thank you for being with us here today. I often reflect on the unique and unbroken lineage of the Marine Band family. Members you see here today played with someone who played with someone who played with someone who played with John Philip Sousa. Think about that. The direct passing of that musical legacy that tradition from hand to hand from heart to heart preserved protected and alive and so it goes back to 1798. John Philip Sousa was born 167 years ago today November the 6th 1854 at 636 G Street southeast right around the corner from historic Marine barracks. His father Antonio was a trombonist in our Marine Band and the young Sousa received his first instruction of music at just six years old. Lessons include composition, violin, alto, horn, cornet, flute and even the trombone. During Sousa's childhood the Civil War was raging and Washington was an armed camp. The sounds of military music filled the city and had a profound effect on young Sousa. His father would often bring him to Marine Band rehearsals and the budding musician was sometimes even allowed to play, sometimes crash cymbals, sometimes alto horn just on occasion. But the account of the beginning of Sousa's Marine Corps career is almost too fantastic to believe. When he was only 13 years old, Sousa was approached by the leader of a local circus troupe who heard him practicing his violin. He was impressed with his ability and somehow persuaded the 13-year-old John Philip Sousa to run away the next morning to join his troupe. Well, dear old dad discovered the plan and the very next morning dragged John Philip to Marine barracks and enlisted him as an apprentice of the Marine Corps. Go dad. After serving almost seven years with the Marine Band, Sousa decided to leave the Marine Corps and strike out on his own. He began a very successful career performing and conducting in theater orchestras of Washington, DC and Philadelphia while also beginning to write and publish his own original compositions. Five years after leaving the Marine Band, the commandant of the Marine Corps himself tracked him down and offered him the position of director of the president's own. Despite the fact that he was in the midst of a very successful career, Sousa jumped at the chance. And at 25 years old, he became the 17th director of the United States Marine Band. Those next 12 years, Sousa led the Marine Band and established it as the country's premier musical ensemble. Rehearsals became strict and professional and the reputation of the band began to spread well beyond the nation's capital city. It was also during this time that Sousa began to write marches that would earn him the title the March King. Semper Fidelis, the March you heard earlier this morning, was written in 1888 and the next year he penned the Thunderer and the Washington Post. Toward the end of his tenure as director, Sousa was determined to regularly share the talents of these musicians for those beyond the borders of the capital city. And in 1891, approached president Benjamin Harrison himself to receive permission to embark on our first national concert tour, which was 13 states in New England and the Midwest. The trip was a tremendous success. And a tour was scheduled for the following year, taking us all the way to the West Coast. These tours became such an important part of our identity and our ability to directly connect with the American people as America's band. And it's a practice we continue today very proudly. After more than a decade as director, Sousa's growing popularity and his success prompted the band, prompted him to leave the Marine Band and pursue a very successful civilian career. He received his discharge orders on July the 30th, 1892, after a special farewell concert at the White House. And he immediately formed his Sousa band for the nearly next 14 decades. He led the most successful the successful concert band in history, making annual tours of North America, four tours to Europe. And in 1910 and in 1911, a monumental tour around the world. During his lifetime and beyond, Sousa had an immense impact on America's artistic culture and music. But perhaps the greatest and most enduring influence Sousa has had as he was an unabashed champion of the American spirit. His music continues to inspire and stir American patriotism all across the nation and beyond. So today, on John Philip Sousa's birthday, the men and women of the United States Marine Band are once again honored to gather here at his final resting place and lay a wreath in grateful recognition of all he gave to the Marine Band, to the Marine Corps and to the nation. Following the wreath laying, we will celebrate his legacy by performing his most famous march, our National March, Stars and Stripes Forever.