America’s 250th Birthday Celebration

David Corrao hosted a celebration of America’s 250th birthday on the Fourth of July in an aircraft hangar in Carson City. Most of the hosts are veterans, so the theme was a USO show called America, the Story of Us. Guests walked in past model airplanes and a wall of wartime posters.

Inside, star spangled lanterns and blue tinsel hung from the rafters over red, white and blue tables, and the USO stage carried flags and the seals of the armed services. I was the DJ and MC, set up right at the stage, and played big band and classic hits as the guests arrived.

Once everyone was seated, the program opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and Jackie Evancho’s Star Spangled Banner. Kate Smith’s God Bless America and Ray Charles’s America the Beautiful followed, each with a little of its story, and one of the hosts took the mic to welcome the whole hangar.

Over a Famous Dave’s buffet I played wartime classics like Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Swinging On A Star and We’ll Meet Again. Then came the film America, the Story of Us on the screens by the stage, with its sound running through my speakers so one system covered the whole hangar.

After the film I honored every branch with the Armed Forces Medley, then played Swing the Mood, Black Betty and Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue. I closed the day with Friends In Low Places.