A $437 million annual budget is allotted for US military bands. While that's less than 0.1% of the Department of Defense's total budget, it's also about as much as Latvia's entire defense budget, reports Fox News.
The funds pay for instruments—the Air Force requested to buy a $75,000 cello last year—and travel for 137 military bands, made up of 6,650 musicians, which the DoD say inspire patriotism and boost morale, per the Daily Caller.
The Navy even claims the bands, which sometimes play for foreign leaders, offer "an initial step towards improving relationships with foreign nations." But the Government Accountability Office isn't so sure, claiming in a new report that military services haven't been able to show if or how the bands meet these objectives.
Read the full story on Newser.com
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