Aurora grad signs up for another hitch in U.S. Marine Corps
Having spent the last four years playing tuba in the United States Marine Corps Band, Aurora native Cpl. Elliott Jensen has decided he’s ready for four more.
While growing up in Aurora and playing in the high school band, Jensen said the Marine Corps had always been on his mind.
“From a young age I always knew that I wanted to join the Marine Corps,” Jensen explained. “In my opinion, the Marines are the best branch in the military. They have the longest and hardest boot camp, the coolest looking uniforms and the best bands.”
At the time of his recruitment, Jensen had been heavily involved in Aurora’s band program, having participated in the school’s various ensembles, in band leadership teams and playing with honor bands throughout eastern Nebraska.
“I was originally going to go to college and do ROTC and be an officer in the Marine Corps,” he stated. “Long story short, the recruiters found out that I played tuba and asked me if I wanted to take an audition for the music program.”
Jensen traveled to Chicago where he auditioned to be an instrumentalist with the Marine Bands and was soon notified that he had been accepted.
“I was ecstatic,” he commented. “It was definitely something new and definitely an adventure that I was excited to go on.”
Following his high school graduation in 2019, Jensen was sent for boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, Calif.
“Going through the boot camp and the training process, it gives you a new slate for any expectations that you might have,” Jensen commented. “At first, you go through boot camps, which is 13 weeks of training and then after that you go through Marine combat training and that’s another four weeks on top of boot camp.”
After basic training, Jensen moved on to train at Marine Detachment Little Creek in the Naval School of Music, in Virginia Beach, Va.
“That is where you start to learn how to become a Marine musician, what it looks like to fulfill your job and duty from there, then you move on to your fleet band,” he explained.
Following his Marine music training in 2020, Jensen went back to San Diego to serve and perform with Marine Band San Diego (MBSD) as a tuba instrumentalist.
“The Marine Band San Diego’s primary mission is to support the recruit graduations that happen every Friday here,” the corporal explained. “We perform at the color ceremony, the graduation ceremony as well as other small ensemble gigs that we have.”
Even with his vast amount of musical experience, the transition into one of the highest performing bands in the country was surreal for Jensen.
“Getting to my fleet band was very interesting at first,” he said. “We have so much music to memorize. Most ceremonies we don’t have any music for because it’s all expected to be memorized and so when you show up in a unit, you’re memorizing all this musical music, you’re learning what the operational tempo and the operational pace looks like. It is challenging to start into the new routine of getting to a new band, because it’s completely new and you’re meeting all these new people.”
In addition to learning a new regimen as a musician, Jensen says it was also difficult to being stationed in the eighth largest city in the country.
“San Diego has been a huge change for me, obviously, coming Aurora and a one stoplight county,” Jensen said. “I definitely prefer small town Nebraska to the hustle and bustle of the city.”
Over the last three years Jensen said he has performed over 100 gigs playing in different ensembles such as the Brass Band, which he described as “a New Orleans-style street band.”
“I’ve done multiple recruiting tours with some in Seattle and some in Texas to support the people’s mission of recruiting,” he commented. “If there is instrumentation that needs to be filled in, I will also fill in that instrumentation, but my main ensembles that I’ve been in were the brass band and then everybody’s in the ceremonial band and concert band.”
Shortly after his marriage to his wife, Erika, in October of 2023, Jensen reenlisted in November.
“I reenlisted for another four years,” he stated. “My next move is going to the Second Marine Division Band over in North Carolina in Camp Lejuene.”
After making the move to North Carolina in February, Jensen said he will be performing in several exciting events with the Marine Band later this year.
“I know that they are going to France this year,” he said. “I’ve heard that they might be going to Belgium right before I get there and they’re going down to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.”
In addition to traveling with the various bands, Jensen said he also looks forward to advancing his career.
“There’s a lot of opportunities there and more on the Marine Corps side of things, more work in the field and more deployment opportunities and whatnot,” he explained. “I’m potentially looking to get in front of the band in the drum major role and step into that down the line.”
Reflecting on his time in the Marine Corps, Jensen said he was thankful for the opportunities he has had over the course of his career.
“The Marine bands are a great opportunity to get into the music field, especially if you’re a high school player who was very accomplished,” Jensen commented. “It’s been a great opportunity and a great starting point for my career. I don’t necessarily see myself doing anything else except being in the Marine Corps, just because it’s such an amazing program.”
Elliott is the son of Bruce and Victoria Jensen of Aurora.