BDN — Two decades ago, a 26-year-old U.S. Army medic with the 82nd Airborne stepped off a plane and into Bangor International Airport.
The medic was shocked when he entered the terminal on March 8, 1991, and was hit by the sounds of a high school band welcoming him and his comrades back from a six-month deployment during Operation Desert Storm.
He was so struck by the moment that he borrowed a high school student’s tenor saxophone and played a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that brought many to tears and drew national attention to Bangor.
More than 20 years later, that same soldier, 47-year-old Master Sgt. Kevin Tillman, returned to BIA to perform with the John Bapst Memorial High School band for a group of approximately 50 U.S. Army troops who were en route to Afghanistan.