On May 31, 137 members of the Pride of Niner Nation Marching Band — the largest group of UNC Charlotte students to travel together abroad — departed from campus to begin a journey to Normandy, France, where they will be the first university band from North Carolina to represent the United States at an annual commemoration of the D-Day invasion.
“These students come from across our colleges, all unified by their love of music and their love of representing UNC Charlotte,” said Chancellor Philip L. Dubois, who joined band members’ families and the entire campus community in seeing the students off. “This trip is more than a great tour; it takes present-day students to the places where crucial history was made.”
Noting the UNC Charlotte Alumni Association’s support for the trip, Dubois acknowledged the ongoing generosity of alumni Gene and Vickie Johnson, whose commitment was instrumental in the marching band’s founding four years ago shortly after the introduction of football to Forty-Niner athletics.
“To say I’m proud is an understatement,” said Johnson (’73), an Army veteran who served the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees for eight years, including as chair from 2011-14. Referencing UNC Charlotte’s post-World War II origins after the creation of the GI Bill, he continued, “This is an amazing opportunity for our students to appreciate in a new and vivid way the history that produced our great university.”
Before students boarded buses for the airport, they — along with Director of Bands Shawn Smith, Chancellor Dubois, Gene and Vickie Johnson, and U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson (’96, N.C. 8th Congressional District) — planted American flags in front of Johnson Band Center. Each flag bears the name of a U.S. service member honored by alumni and friends of the University who contributed to a special fundraising effort for the trip. In Normandy, students will plant flags with the same names as well as wear sashes with their uniforms that honor U.S. soldiers from every American conflict.
Hudson presented Shawn Smith with a U.S. flag that recently flew over the U.S. Capitol Building to take to the D-Day commemoration — and bring back to fly at UNC Charlotte’s campus.
“As a student, I never dreamed UNC Charlotte would have a football team, much less a marching band,” said Hudson. “This flag affirms the historic significance of the University’s origins as well as the fact that every time I return to campus, there is something new and exciting to see.”
While in Normandy, the band will march in a parade in Sainte-Mère-Église, one of the first villages liberated by American troops, and perform at the Normandy American Cemetery. The University will present a special webcast program from France on D-Day, June 6, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time; the live stream can be seen on UNC Charlotte’s Facebook, inside.charlotte.edu, or normandy.uncc.edu, a website that captures the band’s Normandy experience and the University’s World War II connections. The Popp Martin Student Union Theatre will host a viewing party for the campus community at the same time.