Dan Ross and the Salvation Army 05, In the US Army
Fayetteville Corps, North Carolina

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

When Johnny comes marching home again,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give him a hearty welcome then,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
The ladies they will all turn out,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

The old church bells will peal with joy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
To welcome home our darling boy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The village lads and lassies say
With roses they will strew the way,
And we'll all feel gay
Whn Johnny comes marching home.

Get ready for the Jubilee,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give the hero three times three,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The laurel wreath is ready now
To place upon his loyal brow,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

Let love and friendship on that day,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Their choicest treasures then display,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
And let each one perform some part
To fill with joy the warrior's heart,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

Oh How Sweet When We Mingle

Oh, how sweet when we mingle with kindred spirits here,
And tell of Jesus and His love!
When by faith we can see Him, and feel His presence near,
And lift our longing souls above.

Refrain

We shall meet on the banks of the river,
Happy, happy there forevermore!
We shall dwell with the angels, and join with choral song,
Our loved ones, loved ones gone before.

We are pilgrims of Zion, though trials we must bear,
Which all are blessings in disguise:
Though the cross may be heavy, the crown we soon shall wear
In Heav’n, where pleasure never dies.

Refrain

When we walk through the valley and shadow of the tomb,
Dear Savior, Thou wilt be our Guide:
And Thy smile like a sunbeam will light beyond the gloom,
And keep Thy people at Thy side.

Refrain

Erik Leidzen wrote this piece. It was used by the Asbury Park Citadel Band on a tour of several Southern Territory cities. Leidzen was a friend of the New Jersey Youth Band's Bandmaster Al Swinerton. Leidzen gave the manuscript of this piece to Al Swinerton and Al Swinerton gave it to Bonna. We have an original Leidzen manuscript of this piece in our files.

 Fort Bragg is just a little distance out of beautiful downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina. The main feature of Fayetteville is the slave market right in the middle of the road in downtown Fayetteville. I couldn't believe any such thing was still standing, but the people told me it was there as a "reminder." After I got assigned to a bunk, I started looking for The Salvation Army. Once again, the corps officers were very friendly and invited me to their home for dinner. I spent some time with them from time to time and we would listen to Salvation Army Band records. The corps officer had a new copy of a Holllywood Tabernacle record where all of the band had gone to a western movie set and were posed all over the town, on the roof, on the street, in old western wagons. He was impressed. The officers were the Coles. This corps bore very little resemblance to The Seattle Temple Corps.

At Fort Bragg, I took my bank roll down to the nearest VW dealer and bought a brand spanking new VW bus. When a lot of guys get together, they like to assign nicknames. It wasn't long before I was dubbed "Nonstop." When I got in the VW, I tended to drive 'til I got there where ever the destination was. I finally had a car and I decided Baltimore wasn't too far away, so I spent a lot of weekends visiting the Burlocks and Washington, D.C., The corps had no band and I had been cooped up in Vietnam for so long, I spent most weekends traveling.

When I wasn't traveling, I attended the corps. It took me a long time to wind down from Vietnam. After the explosion at my mom's house, I had a similar experience at Fort Bragg. Everybody in my unit had been home from Vietnam for less than two months. One day we were having "marijuana orientation" on the second floor of a barracks building and the instructor was passing around some burning marijuana for purposes of being able to identify marijuana when we smelled it. All of a sudden, "KABLAM!!!" I was lying on the floor wondering who could be shooting at us and everybody else was on the floor too. You learn in a combat area when to duck for cover and we had all just got back. Pretty soon, after a little bit of "Is anybody hit? Is everybody OK?" we got up off the floor and looked out the window. There was a military funeral firing squad outside the window practicing for a funeral.

Fayetteville had passed some kind of ordnance in order to keep an ante bellum look to the town dictating the style of building you could build. Apparently, nobody told The Salvation Army because their building was an ultra modern building that looked like a wedge of cheese laying on its side. I enjoyed the corps and the people and even took some of the guys from the base to church with me. However, I remembered the Warrant Officer in Vietnam who had wept when he was told that he was going to Fort Bragg. He had reason to weep.

So, even though I was fairly close to Baltimore and friends there, I was seeking a new gig. In Military Intelligence, a lot of the jobs are illegal to do inside the United State. If you weren't in counter intelligence, there wasn't much to do. We would get bored quickly so the general rule was to find an office or something where we could "volunteer" to help someone out. I had a friend named Tony Capone who was an interrogator and he had found a desk in the Personnel Office. There was an empty desk next to his so I asked the Captain in charge of personnel if I could hang out there and do filing and such. He gave me a desk right next to Tony's.

One day, I heard that there was an opening for someone with my Military Occupational Speciality in Fort Hood. I told the Captain I wanted the information on the job in Fort Hood. He told me that my Company Commander was going to give the job to a guy named Sheehan. I said, "Why Sheehan?" He told me it was because Sheehan had been on the funeral firing squad and his boots were always real shiny and his parents lived just outside Fort Hood. I said, "Can I see the paperwork?" He said, "Sure." I looked at the paperwork and saw the prerequisites for the job. OK. I was a spy, I was in the Continental Intelligence Command, and I was in the Personnel Office. I had access to everybody's personnel file. I went to the filing cabinet, and after about an hour I went back to the Personnel Officer and told him I had checked everybody's file and I was the only person in the US Army who met all of the qualifications. I said, "I want that job." The Captain looked at the paperwork and saw immediately that Sheehan did not meet the prerequisites and sure enough, I was the only guy. Within a couple of days I was ordered to go to Texas.

I've always thought that my being in personnel and being the ONLY person in the US Army that met the prerequisites for the job was God's way of placing me in the hands of "She who must be obeyed," my future wife, Bonna.

Back To Your Family Tree Homepage

• Genealogy Database - Newest - June 24, 2002
•  
• Family Historians Who Contribute To This Site
•  
• Family Members' Websites
•  
• Add Your Information to This Family Tree ...PLEASE
•  
• Places of Worship and Religious Work of Members of this Family Tree
•  
• Who are these relatives? Please help Identify them.
•  
• Full Color Timeline Graph of Descendants of James Ross and Margaret Wilkie
•  
• Transitions: Important changes, births, weddings, hospitalizations, death
•  
• Family Photo Album
•  
• Family Tree Charts
•  
• Family Members Military Photo Album