What’s the point of a band in the military?

Question

What do they do for the military? Do they fight? Do they get paid? Are they outsourced musicians or are they actually part of the military? Also, why?

In: 6368

Answer 1

They’re ceremonial now, but historically drums (and trumpets and flags and such) were how you gave orders during a battle.

Edit: Wow. Did not anticipate that much attention to an offhand ELI5 answer. Here’s a link to some excellent options if you’d like to help Ukraine, be it humanitarian support or otherwise. Every bit helps: https://linktr.ee/RazomForUkraine

Edit v2.0: Shoutout to all the commenters for elaborating on my brief response. Made for some interesting reading