On instrument tryout day in sixth grade, “the clarinet chose me,” Joshua Gates, SIS/MIS ’26, recalls with a warm chuckle.
A dozen years later, in 1999, the United States Air Force chose Gates to play with its storied Heritage of America Band—an opportunity that took him to 27 states and 31 countries.
Playing alongside 40 or so of the country’s most talented musicians in the ensemble—one of 59 Army Air Corps bands created by the secretary of war in 1941 to boost morale and support the war effort—was exacting and exhilarating.
But the group’s public affairs mission struck a profound chord with Gates. He was increasingly drawn to music as a form of cultural exchange—a fascination that solidified during a six-year assignment at Ramstein Air Base in Germany with the Air Forces in Europe Band. There, his role evolved to operations and logistics; he sent nine different musical groups across two continents and liaised directly with the State Department and the governments of host nations. The music was the medium, but the mission had become diplomacy.
That realization sparked a key change, as Gates began to consider a post-military career in the Foreign Service or USAID.
In 2018, he enrolled in the School of International Service’s online master’s to build a theoretical foundation for his practical experience in international relations. But a year later, a special duty assignment in the Defense Attaché Office took him to the US Embassy in Mauritania. Between the spotty internet and the demands of his role as a military advisor, Gates had to withdraw from SIS.
When he retired from the Air Force in May 2025, Gates reenrolled in SIS’s executive master’s program. “I’m taking classes that are interesting to me not because it’s going to get me somewhere specific career-wise, but because it will edify me and build on the knowledge and experience that I already have.”
He is enjoying being on campus and wrestling with new ideas. “We always need educated, prepared people no matter what the job market is or what opportunities are available,” he says.
Like any good musician, Gates knows how to improvise.