Capital Times: Tunes For Troops, Even As They Face Combat, Music Matters To U.S.

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Capital Times: Tunes For Troops, Even As They Face Combat, Music Matters To U.S. Soldiers In Iraq

http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2007/04/27/0704270238.php

Tunes For Troops

Even As They Face Combat, Music Matters To U.s. Soldiers In Iraq

The Capital Times :: LIFESTYLE :: B1
Friday, April 27, 2007
Rob Thomas The Capital Times
E-mail: [email protected]

Perhaps some cultural barriers are never meant to be breached, but the episode underscored that even in wartime, music matters. When American soldiers were back in their bases, they listened to their favorite bands and traded MP3s with each other just like in your average college dorm.

And when they went out on patrol, they would duct-tape CD players and speakers to their Humvees - which, naturally, don't include stereo systems as an option - and listen to chest-pounding hard rock to pump themselves up for another tense ride.

Now a senior at the UW-Madison studying psychology and sociology, McAuliffe says songs by hard rock acts Tool, Disturbed and Drowning Pool were listening favorites when his unit went out on patrol, vulnerable to roadside bombs and other insurgent attacks.

"We drove on one road that was called by CNN the most dangerous road in Iraq (the road to Baghdad International Airport), and we did that consistently," he says. "We had that fear of getting hit by IEDs, so we would psych ourselves up with some really heavy music."

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