United States Coast Guard Band

The United States Coast Guard Band is the premier military band of the United States Coast Guard based in New London, Connecticut. The current director is Captain Kenneth W. Megan.

History
In March 1925, the Coast Guard Band was organized with the assistance of Lt. Charles Benter, leader of the U.S. Navy Band, Dr. Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and "American March King" John Philip Sousa, former director of the U.S. Marine Band.

Forty years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Congressional legislation that resulted in the Coast Guard Band becoming the permanent, official musical representative of the nation's oldest continuous seagoing service, the U.S. Coast Guard. This event established the band as one of the ten premier service bands in the U.S.

The duties of the Coast Guard Band have greatly expanded since 1965. Originally a small command band located at the Academy and used primarily for local purposes, today the band routinely tours throughout the U.S. and has performed in the former Soviet Union as well as in England. The band represents the U.S. Coast Guard around the nation and the world, at presidential functions, and for the Secretary of Homeland Security and other cabinet officials on formal and informal occasions.

The Coast Guard Band is headquartered in New London, Connecticut.