The first two corps in the Rockford, Illinois, area, the VFW Post 342 and the American Legion Post 62, were composed of veterans who were male and members of those particular posts. There have been many drum corps in the Rockford area since that time. By far the most successful has been the Phantom Regiment.

Formed in 1956 by a group of VFW 342 members who wanted to see a competitive drum corps, the group was initially named the Rockford Rangers, with an all-girl color guard to be called the Rangerettes.

Many of the members did not feel the name "Rangers" was appropriate for their corps. Some of the members had been listening to Stetson D. Richmond records and were impressed with a 1952 Leroy Anderson tune the Syracuse Brigadiers had played entitled "The Phantom Regiment." Thus, before the corps had made any public appearances, the corps name was changed to Phantom Regiment, and the all-girl color guard was labelled the Phantomettes.

While the corps was in its developmental stages, a substantial emphasis was placed on the competitive guard aspect of the activity. Almost overnight, the Phantomettes became very successful in their own right. An all-male comp guard made up of members of the Regiment horn line, called the Raiders, also had a brief success story.

The drum and bugle corps itself, however, struggled competitively. Fortunes began to improve only when in 1962 the corps bought a set of high quality bugles from the Commonwealth Edison Drum and Bugle Corps. A new brass arranger also sped the growth process. Also in 1962, the original Phantom Regiment Cadets was formed, using the old set of bugles.

In 1963, the Regiment fielded an all-male corps, including the color guard, with mixed results. The all-girl guard returned in 1964 and, with the help of a very successful recruiting drive, the Phantom Regiment, sporting a new set of military uniforms, had its most successful year to date.

The corps' competition color guard, the Phantomettes, was memorialized on vehicle registration stickers by the City of Rockford in 1964.

But just as it looked as if the Regiment was on its way to becoming a championship-caliber corps, a fire in the corps hall took away the corps' home, along with the uniforms and the instruments. The Phantom Regiment tried to field a corps in 1965, but eventually was forced to cancel the season due to lack of finances.

A new board of directors, comprising former members and staff of the original corps, reorganized and incorporated the Phantom Regiment on Sept. 11, 1967, with the following mission statement:

"To organize, maintain, and operate a musical marching unit, band, color guard, and related activities, and in general, promote and encourage drum and bugle corps activities, parades, concerts, contests, and to further the musical talents and interests of young persons."

The original board of directors could not have imagined that 30 years later their corps would have a budget of well over half a million dollars, nor that Phantom would be competing for the drum and bugle corps world championship.

The reorganized Phantom Regiment began its first season in three years as a small corps that signed its first roster on Jan. 10, 1968. There were 28 charter members.

The first season for the corps included many parades and a few contests. The corps uniform included black pants with a red windbreaker and a black and white vertical stripe on the left side of the windbreaker. The equipment truck was a red step van, the only vehicle the corps owned.

As the years passed, the number of contests grew, the distance traveled in the tour increased, and the Phantom Regiment began to creep up the ladder of drum corps success.

New in 1970 were cadet-style uniforms, including black pants with a white stripe, and a jacket with a diagonal sash of red dividing the black right side from the white left side. White bucks were worn on the feet and new shakos with 12-inch plumes decorated the head. The corps included 40 horns, 24 color guard, 14 drums, 10 rifles and one drum major in 1970, for a total of 89 members.

By 1971, the first hints of Phantom's ultimate classical style were beginning to appear. The 1972 show featured a concert version of "Poet and Peasant Overture," however improbably accompanied by the "Addams Family Theme" as a marching tymp solo!

A sign of the corps' increased confidence was one Friday the 13th in 1971, when three of the corps' busses ran out of gas and their equipment truck caught fire - twice. Yet Regiment still won the evening's contest.

During the fall and winter of the 1974 season every member of the 128-man corps took individual marching and brass lessons. The Phantom Regiment made finals at the Drum Corps International World Championships for the first time in 1974, finishing eighth in Prelims and 11th in Finals. They have been a fixture in the DCI top 12 ever since.

The years between 1967 and 1974 were some of the most exciting in the history of the corps. They were the formative years and defined the style of the Phantom Regiment. Those years saw the growth of the young nucleus of members to a mature world-class drum corps.

In the fall of 1974, a new uniform was conceived, one that would give the Phantom Regiment its long-term identity: long white jackets with a black sash, a two-colored cape with red on the inside and black on the outside, black pants, and the one element that remains today: the pith helmet.

The remainder of the 1970s would be years of rapid advancement for the Regiment as the corps matured to become a contender for the DCI crown. In 1975, the corps placed 10th. In 1976, it placed fourth. And in 1977, 1978 and 1979, the corps placed second, only a tenth or two from becoming World Champion.

During the early 1980s, the Regiment produced some of the most innovative programs ever to grace the field of competition. The corps was well ahead of its time with the 1981 and 1982 productions of the ballet "Spartacus," a project two years in the making. Critically acclaimed and loved by audiences everywhere, the program increased Regiment's fame throughout the world.

The corps that is recognized today began in 1987. After a difficult tenth-place finish in 1986, the corps took a fresh new approach. Michael Cesario inspired a dramatic new look, with new all-white uniforms more closely resembling costumes. This new look and approach led to three years of substantial improvement, culminating in 1989 with a second-place finish and the second highest score ever, 98.4.

In 1989, the corps joined the Kansas City Symphony on stage in a performance of "Elsa's Processional to the Cathedral" so powerful that a newspaper reviewer felt he might never recover.

The 1990s proved to be a time of continued success and evolution, as in 1995 the uniforms changed again. The same style was continued, but the color became all black.

The 1993 show, featuring "Estancia," "Fire of Eternal Glory," and "The Death Hunt," was a crowd pleaser throughout the season and won Phantom a tightly contested third-place finish at DCI Championships in Jackson. They had finished a "disastrous" eighth in 1992.

In 1996, the goal and dream of everyone involved with the organization over the past 30 years came true. The Phantom Regiment tied the Concord Blue Devils for its first DCI World Championship. The music of that championship year of was of Shostakovich.

After that winning year, however, Phantom went into a relative decline, finishing out of the top six in three of the next four years.

The corps took on a new look in 2000 with another Michael Cesario-inspired uniform. The all-black was replaced by tan jackets and white pants with a red baldric. The traditional Phantom Regiment helmets remained. Unfortunately a fire destroyed Phantom's souvenir trailer in July, 2000, while traveling in Mississippi, causing the corps substantial financial damage.

The corps' resurgence in the early 2000s is credited to the vision and leadership of board members Tim Farrell and Dan Farrell, along with that of corps director Patrick Seidling.

After a long swing through the West in 2003, an Harmonic Journey, the corps finished the season fourth, with a score of 94.75. Corps director Pat Seidling was chosen as DCI's director of the year in 2003.

The 2004 show was a departure for the traditionally classical corps, as they presented "Apasionada 874," a performance dedicated to the charm of the tango. The theme encouraged much emoting and passion by the horn line, and not to mention a graceful tango across the field by 12 contras. On Finals night, Phantom took fifth place, with a score of 93.575. This consistent group has not been out of the DCI Top Ten since 1974, and placed within the top four 15 times.

Phantom is the originator of "all-symphonic pageantry," turning a "classic style into a unique combination of timeless music and world class drum corps." Their treatments of the greats, especially Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, are drum corps classics. Now into the 21st century, the Phantom Regiment continues its past success and strives for new goals.

The Phantom Regiment organization features one alternative corps (Phantom Regiment Cadets, the "alternative opportunity" local corps) and the Phantom Regiment Pre-Cadets (a feeder corps, also known as the Mites).

[www.regiment.org/history.html; DCW, 12/88, p.4; DCW, 1/89, p.2; rec.arts.marching.drumcorps, GSNewell, 3/28/99 & 7/26/00; DCW, 8/31/02, p.3; DCW, 7/26/02, p.3; DCW, 1/03, p.8; DCW, 7/6/90, p.13; DCW, 5/04, p.25, inter alia]