Kodiak’s Coast Guard Base Alive with Sound

Kimo Williams, Ernie Denov, Gary Sinise and the Captain Dan Band play "Purple Haze" at a concert Friday at the Kodiak Coast Guard Base. Robin Frost photo

Jacob Resneck/KMXT

Kodiak’s Coast Guard base was alive with sound Friday as the USO brought a 12-piece cover band fronted by actor Gary Sinise to entertain servicemen and women in a mission to boost morale. KMXT’s Jacob Resneck visited the base and filed this report.

It’s Friday afternoon and the sound of the Lt. Dan Band rehearsing echoes off the tarmac in front of Hangar Three. The band’s fronted by actor Gary Sinise and named after a character he played in the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

That evening hundreds of Coast Guardsmen and women gathered with their families in the hangar. Sinise told the crowd how the Lt. Dan Band came to be.

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The Kimo he refers to is Kimo Williams, the band’s lead guitarist and himself a cobat veteran.

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(Purple Haze)

Earlier that day Sinise told KMXT why he felt performing for troops is so important to him.

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Also touring with the USO is retired Army Major Drew Dennis Dix, a decorated Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The 65-year-old says the USO missions do a lot for morale for U.S. troops all over the world.

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The Lieutenant Dan Band is comprised of more than a dozen musicians and covered a lot of ground last week both in distance and musically from rock and roll, R&B to blues.

(blues)

The Alaska tour began at Elmendorf Air Force Base and after Kodiak wrapped up at Eilson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks.