Fort Mill’s high school band will travel overseas to honor its hometown veterans
On Veterans Day, one of Fort Mill’s decorated high school bands was preparing to travel across the world to honor hometown soldiers who gave their lives for their country.
The Fort Mill High School band learned Friday they’ll travel to France and Switzerland in 2026.
The spring trip coincides with America’s 250th birthday, and is meant to honor 40 Fort Mill soldiers killed either in World War I or World War II. A performance at Epinal American Cemetery in eastern France will highlight two of them.
Pvt. Odell Myers is buried there, after the Army soldier was killed in combat in 1945. Myers was nine months into his Army service when he went overseas in December 1944, according to Herald archives. He lived with his wife and four children on Lee Street in Fort Mill at the time. He worked at one of the Springs mills. The following January, his wife received a letter stating he was missing in action.
That March, the Herald reported news from the war department that Myers, 23, was killed in action on Jan. 5, 1945 in France.
The other Army soldier highlighted in the coming band performance is the town’s only Medal of Honor recipient, Sgt. Tom Hall. Hall received that honor posthumously for his actions on Oct. 8, 1918.
Hall’s platoon advanced through two machine gun nests but was stopped about 800 yards from its final objective by still more machine gun fire near Montbrehain, France. Hall ordered his men to take cover in a sunken road, according to his Medal of Honor citation, before advancing alone. Hall killed five members of a machine gun post to allow his platoon further advance. Hall was mortally wounded later that day while attacking another machine gun nest.
Hall was 25 years old. He’s buried in Unity Cemetery in Fort Mill, just off Tom Hall Street. The library at Fort Jackson in Columbia also is named for him.
The upcoming trip isn’t the first time Fort Mill’s band, or others in the area, have traveled with a military purpose. The band traveled to the Normandy American Cemetery six years ago in Normandy, France. A Hawaii trip almost three decades ago included a performance at Pearl Harbor.
This spring, band students from Rock Hill’s three high schools traveled to Hawaii and performed at Pearl Harbor. Clover’s performing arts center has routinely hosted official military bands for performances, at times playing with high school students there.
The Fort Mill band is one of the most accomplished programs in South Carolina. They have a record 24 state marching band titles.
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 10:34 AM.
