Blue Rock Senior

The Blue Rock senior drum and bugle corps was formed in November 1948 when a split occurred within the Jacob Ferdinand Speer VFW Post 615 membership.

When the war ended, many former members came home and reformed the 615 Post with a greater sense for serious competition. By 1948, they had earned enough money to go to the VFW Nationals in St. Louis, only to be refused sponsorship by their own post. With this incredible disappointment, membership went on to find their own sponsor, the Blue Rock VFW Post 7598, which by the way was a vacant lot in Elsmere. The newly resurrected senior corps would be named for its new Post...Blue Rock!

From 1949 to 1955, the corps was a parade unit, performing in many local and regional events that included a trip to the 1954 VFW Nationals convention held in Philadelphia. In 1956, Blue Rock concentrated its efforts on the creation of a completely renovated musical unit that would allow them to enter the field of competition. Their mission was accomplished as they competed for the first time since the reorganization of the Post corps 7 years ago.

In 1957, under the sponsorship of the Walker Dyer American Legion (AL) Post 181 of Penns Grove, NJ, the corps competed at the AL championships in Atlantic City, placing 21^st in the preliminaries and continued regional competition in 1958. They were the 1956, 1957 and 1958 VFW state champions. Many of the officers of this post had familiar Blue Rock names such as Sam Puff, Bob Manlove, Bob Smith and the infamous Ted Sciarra, who had a tremendous influence in the development of both the junior and seniors corps. The senior corps was criticized for having an all-girl guard, one of the few posts in the activity to include females in the unit.

In 1959, the corps reorganized as a junior corps and many of the members joined the Archer-Epler Musketeers. After a very successful tenure in the junior ranks, the Blue Rock returned to senior competition, participating at the DCA championships in 1975, placing 18^th in the prelims.

Blue Rock would only last for the one season and disbanded in 1976.