1997

In 1997 the band printed a tour shirt. The front reads WORLD TOUR 1997. The back lists nine dates. The shirt was printed in Tucson in an edition of seventy-two. All seventy-two were sold. The archive holds one.

The archive has verified each date on the back of the shirt against the mission log, the fuel receipts and the van's odometer. The results are listed below. Every date took place. Every town is where the shirt says it is.

The tour was planned in February. Marcus submitted his leave request on February 28. It was the earliest leave request on file at his employer that year. Dennis and Dave followed in March. Elaine scheduled the tour to begin after her annual training in mid-May. Tony rebuilt the van's transmission over three weekends in May. He did not log it as band work. He logged it as preventive.

The tour left Tucson on May 30. It went north to Florence first. It then crossed into New Mexico for two dates and drove east across the Panhandle into Texas, where it played six. Tony drove every mile. The van returned to Tucson on June 15. It required one tire, which was budgeted.

Attendance on the tour ranged from twelve to forty-seven. The smallest crowd was the last. Marcus delivered the full five-minute briefing to the band before that show, as before every show. He did not shorten it. He has said there is no audience size below which the briefing becomes optional.

In May the Department of Defense released the Quadrennial Defense Review. Marcus read it in the van between Madrid and the Texas line. He read the sections that concerned force structure twice. He made notes in the margins. The notes became the band's fourth album, released the following year.

Earlier in the spring the band played a show billed as The Boneyard. The poster was stenciled on cardboard by Dennis and taped up across Tucson by Dave. It advised ear protection. The advice was followed by most of the audience.

By day, Elaine was promoted to sergeant first class. Brian Holt was made an instructor pilot and attended every Tucson date. The band played thirty shows in 1997. Nine of them are on the shirt.