Supplementary Materials: The PHS March and Fanfare

The recording of the PHS March and the Centennial Fanfare represent the "official music" of the Public Health Service. Both were composed by Senior Musician George King III (Retired, Coast Guard). Senior Musician King was stationed at the Cape May Coast Guard facility and was faced with the problem of what to play at dinner when there were visiting PHS dignitaries, since the other services has marches and official music. Senior Musician King composed the march and presented the copyright to the PHS Surgeon General, by whom it is still held. The PHS is the only one of the uniformed services in which the copyright is held by the titular head of the Corps. For his service to the PHS, Senior Musician King was presented the PHS Achievement Medal by then Surgeon General Julius Richmond, the only Coast Guard enlisted person to receive such an honor.

In the process of the celebration of the Corps Centennial in 1989, Senior Musician King was contacted about the possibility of a new piece of music for the occasion. He composed the Centennial Fanfare - "Anchor and Caduceus", for the occasion. At the Washington gala celebrating the event in January of 1989, the Coast Guard Band played and Senior Musician King conducted, for the premier of the fanfare. Senior Musician King was presented the PHS Citation by Surgeon General Koop for his service to the PHS in this regard.

Later that year, the US Coast Guard Band recorded both the PHS March and Centennial Fanfare for the Public Health Service and presented it to the PHS during their centennial.

If your computer is properly configured, you can download and listen to performances of both of these pieces:

• PHS March (mu-law format, 1058117 bytes)
• Centennial Fanfare (mu-law format, 936296 bytes)

(these recordings were made in May, 1989 by the U.S. Coast Guard Band under the direction of Senior Musician George King III; the audio quality of the currently available recordings is poor, a problem we hope to remedy in the future).