This Veterans Day, one of Fort Mill’s decorated high school bands is preparing to travel the world to honor hometown soldiers who gave their lives for their country.
The Fort Mill High School band learned Friday that they will travel to France and Switzerland in 2026.
The spring trip coincides with America’s 250th birthday and is intended to honor 40 Fort Mill soldiers who died in World War I or World War II. A performance at the Epinal American Cemetery in eastern France will highlight two of these.
Pvt. Odell Myers is buried there after the army soldier was killed in combat in 1945. Myers served nine months in the Army when he went overseas in December 1944, according to Herald archives. At the time, he lived with his wife and four children on Lee Street in Fort Mill. He worked at one of the Springs factories. The following January, his wife received a letter saying he was missing.
In March, the Herald reported War Department news that Myers, 23, was killed in action in France on January 5, 1945.
The other Army soldier highlighted in the upcoming band performance is the city’s only Medal of Honor recipient, Sgt. Tom Hall. Hall received that honor posthumously for his actions on October 8, 1918.
Hall’s platoon advanced through two machine gun nests, but was stopped about 800 meters from its final objective by 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 advance his platoon. Hall was fatally wounded later that day when he attacked another machine gun nest.
Hal was 25 years old. He is buried in Unity Cemetery in Fort Mill, just off Tom Hall Street. The library at Fort Jackson in Columbia is also named in his honor.
The upcoming trip isn’t the first time the Fort Mill band, or others in the area, have traveled for a military purpose. The band traveled to the Normandy American Cemetery in Normandy, France six years ago. A trip to Hawaii almost thirty years 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, sometimes playing with high school students.
The Fort Mill band is one of the most talented programs in South Carolina. They have a record 24 state marching band titles.
