According to USA Today Network and Wire Reports: MAY 17, 2021 IN THE U.S. A standard military brass band performed on the left side of the formation, while a traditional Korean military band in full regalia played drums and horns on the right side, filling the space of a football field. ABC News' Joohee Cho reports from Seoul that this is how most major South Korean sports events are opened today. In 1919, the U.S. Army established its first permanent band on the West Coast at Fort Lawton near Seattle. The idea came from Colonel Theodore Bradford Baker, who was serving as the army's director of bands at the time. He wanted to have a group that could accompany soldiers on duty in the field and provide them with entertainment when they were not being called into action. (Before this arrangement, soldiers stationed on the West Coast had to make do with drummers.) Over the next several years, other permanent bands were established at Fort Mason near San Francisco, Fort Hunt near Washington, D.C., and Fort Riley near Kansas City. These groups not only provided music for ceremonial occasions but also taught musical skills to young soldiers who would otherwise have had little opportunity to learn these things. In 1929, the modern era of military music began when President Herbert Hoover signed into law the National Defense Act, which included provisions for the promotion and development of music within the armed forces.