I went to band camp for marching band for the first time, and I found out that the marching band staff was trying to get us involved in a ‘pyramid scheme’ and they were trying to kill us. Later I pulled out my trombone and started sniping the staff with it from a hotel window. I shot a couple before I tried to shoot one of the band directors, who kept dodging.
1st Lieutenant James Reese Europe and the 369th Infantry Regiment Band (the Harlem Hellfighters) play for patients in the American Red Cross Hospital No. 9, Paris, France, September 4, 1918.
Record Group 111: Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer
Series: Photographs of American Military Activities
Image description: 1st Lieutenant Europe conducts a brass band who are standing in rows outside a building. All of the men are wearing WWI Army uniforms. A sign in the background reads HOTEL TUNIS. This regiment, the “Harlem Hellfighters,” was made up of all Black soldiers.
Transcription:
SUBJECT: 111SC 218880
NUMBER E
see 20417
2nd Lt. G. E. Stone, S.C.
PHOTOGRAPHER
REC'D 10-14-18
TAKEN 9-4-18
FIRST LT. JAMES E. EUROPE OF the 369th Regt. Inf. playing for the patients of Hospital No. 9. Sgt. Wood Andrews is the first musician on the right and plays the slide trombone. American Red Cross Hospital No. 9, Paris, France.