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Former President Jimmy Carter returned to Washington this week in a final procession worthy of his legacy. While the caisson ride along Constitution Avenue and the hushed reverence in the Capitol rotunda produced some of most indelible images of the state funeral, the Armed Forces Chorus’s contribution to Carter’s ceremony may be the most poignant.  

The chorus’s story spotlights the devotion, talent and professionalism of the troops tasked with providing musical support for events with historical significance and international reach. 

Music is an integral component of state funerals, allowing each branch of service to honor the departed. On Tuesday, when Carter’s remains arrived at Joint Base Andrews, the U.S. Air Force Band contingent performed “Abide with Me.” Later, at Capitol Plaza, The U.S. Army Band greeted Carter’s procession with renditions of “Hail to the Chief,” “God of Our Fathers” and “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”   

While these formal cadences and familiar melodies gave life to the proceedings, members of the Armed Forces Chorus — drawn from the Soldiers’ Chorus from the U.S. Army Field Band, the U.S. Army Chorus, the Navy Band’s Sea Chanters, the Air Force’s Singing Sergeants and the Marine Band — quietly converged to rehearse the repertoire requested by Carter’s family. 

Today, the Armed Forces Chorus will serve as the ceremonial heart of the funeral service at Washington National Cathedral. Joined by the U.S. Marine Orchestra, the chorus will perform classic hymns that pay homage to the former president’s spiritual grounding: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” “Eternal Father,” “Be Still My Soul” and “Thou Gracious God Whose Mercy Lends.” 

The service will cap a challenging week for the musicians assigned to the joint ensemble. The winter storm that slammed into the capital region on Monday forced a flurry of last-minute adjustments, limiting the Armed Forces Chorus to just one collective rehearsal. Still, the team remained focused on its mission.   

That resolve owes itself to the chorus’s exceptional standards, maintained by a veritable “dream team” of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses, each handpicked from four of the Defense Department’s service branches.

Army Master Sgt. Matthew Heil — a Georgia native who serves as the U.S. Army Chorus’s lead producer — spoke of the Armed Forces Chorus’s ability to perform in the face of adversity. 

“Even when circumstances limit our run-throughs, we know this music inside and out,” he said. “When you get so many experienced voices in one place, there’s an emotional electricity that carries you.”   

Army Staff Sgt. James Wilson, a first-term enlistee assigned to the Army Field Band, echoed Heil’s sentiment.    

“One of the reasons I joined was to honor those who have served,” he said. “It’s humbling to step into these sacred moments and soften the grieving process for both the Carter family and the nation.”  

In Wilson’s opinion, each member of the Armed Forces Chorus regards the mission as an act of service rather than a performance.   

Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Mandi Harper, a soprano with the Singing Sergeants, described how the weight of the ceremony and her peers’ years of collective experience sharpen her resolve.  

“When you see professionals from every branch standing shoulder to shoulder, offering up their talents to honor a fallen president, it elevates you,” she said. “We’re able to form this big joint musical ensemble that just feels very natural. I’m working with the best of the best — musicians who can walk into a venue and play it down cold.”   

Navy Senior Chief Casey Campbell agreed with her Air Force counterpart. A concert moderator and primary soloist with the Sea Chanters mixed chorus, Campbell’s confidence is underwritten by nearly two decades of uniformed service.  

“Everyone in this ensemble can walk in off the street and perform together seamlessly,” she said. “Still, we always rehearse and refine because we know how important these moments are to the family and to our country.”   

For Campbell, the Armed Forces Chorus’s pursuit of perfection owes itself to the deeper calling behind every state funeral.    

“We talk about time away from our families, about traveling or missing holidays, but that’s nothing compared to the reality of losing someone you love,” she said. “Seeing the Carter family grieve in private moments of prayer, and then watching the public pay their respects — it’s a lesson in both history and mourning.”   

The Armed Forces Chorus represents a remarkable convergence of talent, education and patriotism. In fact, most of the service members assigned to the ensemble were professional musicians or educators before discovering that military service could offer an unparalleled opportunity to pursue their passions and perform before a national audience. 

After finishing his master’s degree, Staff Sgt. Wilson freelanced opera in Germany until a friend encouraged him to audition for the Soldiers’ Chorus.    

“I never thought I could serve in that way,” he said. “My brother was in Special Warfare with the Navy, so that was what I imagined the military to be, and when I finally looked into military musician programs, I thought ‘this is a neat way to use my gift to contribute in a unique capacity.'”  

Wilson found himself drawn to the idea of singing for something larger than any single performance. “One of the reasons I joined was to honor those who have served,” he explained. 

Campbell’s journey mirrors Wilson’s. After completing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, she never thought her choral-conducting background would lead to a Navy career.    

“I couldn’t imagine that I could serve my country through music and the arts,” she said. “A leader from the Sea Chanters happened to hear me perform a solo at a conference and gave me their card. When a friend of mine who enlisted to sing in the Navy explained what a wonderful career it was, I auditioned immediately.”   

Harper, who holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in vocal performance, discovered that a military career could allow her to marry her passion with service. She joined The U.S. Air Force Band in 2011 after teaching at the collegiate level, attracted by the opportunity to reach audiences in a powerful way. 

For Harper, every performance is a reminder that her talents are best leveraged in support of a greater cause. 

“Music can be very self-serving, but in the Air Force, service comes first, she explained. “We get to honor those who came before us, whether it’s a former president or a fallen airman.”   

Heil, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army Chorus who holds an advanced degree from an elite conservatory, amplified Harper’s sentiment.    

“It is a privilege to join professionally skilled musicians from the Army’s sister services to create something larger than ourselves,” he explained.   

Heil was especially moved to perform at the funeral of a renowned Georgian. “I grew up hearing President Carter speak on helping each other with compassion and love,” he said. “I think our contribution to the funeral is in the spirit of the late president’s message.” 

With three state funerals under his belt, Heil said he regards the opportunity to perform at the high-profile events as both a privilege and a responsibility.    

“My first ceremony was for President Ford, when I was a young sergeant and I just took in the weight of it all,” he admitted. “By the time I sang at President George H.W. Bush’s burial, the words of the songs took on a deeper meaning … and President Carter’s state funeral … is like a celebration of life that honors all of his great works.”   

President Carter’s final farewell is as much about the nation’s enduring traditions as it is about the life and values of a man who believed in service above all else. By drawing on a tapestry of talent from across the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, the Armed Forces Chorus has earned its place at the center of those traditions.

Service members assigned to the Joint Task Force National Capital Region Ceremonial Honor Guard carry President Jimmy Carter’s casket into the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter, who was the 39th president of the United States, died Dec. 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Ga., at the age of 100.

In 1968, W. Jason Morgan published his groundbreaking thesis on the mathematical principles underlying the theory of plate tectonics. His work demonstrated quantitatively that seafloor spreading and continental movements could explain the origin of earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains. 

In 1912 Alfred Wegener presented his theory of “continental drift” to the scientific world. He noted how the continents all seemed that they could fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. He also noted that where the sides of continents appeared to match, they also shared rock and fossil types. Wegener proposed the continents must have drifted apart over time, but many scientists rejected the hypothesis because he couldn’t explain the underlying mechanisms of the movement. 

Morgan’s theory that the earth’s surface is made up of rigid tectonic plates floating on the Earth’s mantle and moving relative to each other — spreading apart, colliding, etc. — hinged on using spherical geometry to predict plate motion. 

Later scientists refined his ideas, but Morgan’s quantitative theory of plates converging, diverging and transforming in relation to one another is considered foundational to the research of geophysical science. Years later, he was proven right by precise GPS measurements of plate movements. 

Morgan’s second great achievement came in 1971. He expanded on earlier work by John Tuzo Wilson, who realized the Hawaiian Islands got older the farther they were located from the volcanically active main island, so the whole island chain must therefore be moving away from a “hot spot” under Hawaii. 

This hypothesis was not generally accepted when it was introduced, but Morgan’s work explained how plumes of magma from the mantle cause the formation of volcanoes — meaning they did not have to be located on plate boundaries. His theory solved the geophysical and geochemical mysteries of why volcanically active islands such as Hawaii and Iceland are composed of different rocks than those found in mid-ocean ridges and how the Yellowstone National Park hot spot formed in Wyoming. 

Morgan also served as an officer in the Navy from 1957 to 1959 after graduating from Georgia Institute of Technology on a Navy ROTC scholarship. 

During his naval service, he taught nuclear physics and navigation to submariners at the Nuclear Power School in New London, Connecticut. He said the work prepared him to take an interest in physics and geoscience. 

NPS is currently located in Goose Creek, South Carolina. According to the Navy, its nuclear program is widely acknowledged as having the most demanding academic program in the U.S. military. Topics include nuclear physics, nuclear reactor technology, metallurgy, thermodynamics and chemistry.  

Morgan was born in Savannah, Georgia, on Oct. 10, 1935, to William Jason Morgan, who also went by Jason, and Maxie Ponita “Nita” Morgan. Morgan’s father served in the Army during World War I in France, working as a blacksmith. 

On July 31, 2023, Morgan died at age 87 in Natick, Massachusetts. He is survived by his son Jason Morgan, a geophysicist, and his daughter Michèle Morgan, as well as a number of grandchildren.

Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Kosinski never imagined that his work for the U.S. Army Band would bring him face-to-face with the most unique challenge of his professional career: composing a funeral hymn for a former president, to be performed outdoors, amid biting wind and freezing temperatures.

Kosinski serves as a music arranger in the U.S. Army Band. Founded in 1922 by order of Army Gen. John Pershing, the band represents one of the Defense Department’s premier musical organizations, with a reputation for excellence that stretches back a century. 

Fittingly, “Pershing’s Own” is at the heart of this week’s proceedings honoring former President Jimmy Carter. That mission resonated with Kosinski, who recognized its historical significance.   

“I’m on the band’s support staff and one of our tasks is to tailor musical arrangements to the specific needs of each event,” Kosinski said. “But I never expected to participate in a ceremony this important.”   

In the final week of preparations for the state funeral, Kosinski and his “Pershing’s Own” colleagues worked around the clock to ensure every note would be executed flawlessly, despite an impending winter storm.   

And central to yesterday’s proceedings in Washington – which began at Joint Base Andrews with the transfer of Carter’s remains and ended with a caisson-led procession along Pennsylvania Avenue — was Kosinski’s specially arranged composition, crafted to account for a simple reality: brass instruments’ metal valves and keys can lock up in low temperatures.

“In extreme cold, the valves and the keys of the instruments will freeze in place, which means that [the performers] only have access to a few musical notes to work with,” Kosinski explained. “So, I composed a piece that used a technique to mitigate the freezing temperatures.”   

Kosinski’s solution leveraged a quality common to Army units: teamwork.    

“In conditions that affect instrument performance, players can cover each other’s missing pitches to produce a seamless composition,” he said. “We considered the unique strengths and abilities of each instrument before deciding on how they should complement each other.”   

Kosinski’s composition — which he dubbed “Frigidus (For the Commander)” — substituted French horns and clarinets for tubas where appropriate, honoring Carter with an original hymn. 

But yesterday’s conditions impacted more than the band’s instruments; the frigid temperatures forced performers assigned to “Pershing’s Own” to dress for the weather, in wool overcoats and thick gloves.

Kosinski admitted that the winter uniforms produced their own challenges. “Sometimes it can be difficult to press the right button when you have … big, stubby gloves on,” he said. Still, the band played flawlessly despite the handicap and maintained their composure throughout the long ceremonial route.

The staff sergeant credited his bandmates’ performance to their rigorous training regimen and sense of shared purpose.   

“The U.S. Army Band’s special quality is its fortitude — they don’t give up, and I think that’s something that the Army … instills at basic training,” Kosinski said. “In this uniform, you will face challenges and setbacks, but the key to success is to pick yourself up and learn from those difficult moments.”   

Kosinski joined the Army Band just over two years ago, after completing a master’s at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute of Music. Before enlisting, he freelanced in composition, conducting and trumpet performance. In 2022, Kosinski entertained a scholarship offer to pursue a doctorate in music at the University of Georgia but ultimately declined. The invitation to compose for “Pershing’s Own” was simply “too valuable to pass up,” he explained, especially if it meant working alongside talented musicians who were equally willing to answer their nation’s call.

Carter’s funeral showcased Kosinski’s innovative spirit and deep respect for history and public service. And his arrangement’s synchronized notes are a testament to “Pershing’s Own’s” commitment to America’s leaders, no matter the circumstances. 

“I can’t help but feel extremely fortunate that I was able to contribute to the ceremony and honor President Carter’s service,” he said. “This was an exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”