that allowed him to take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity. Career On June 2, 1917, Adams and his entire Juvenile Band were inducted into the United States Navy, thus becoming the first African-Americans to receive official musical appointments in the U.S. Navy since at least the War of 1812 and making Adams the Navy's first black bandmaster. It was an exceptional situation inspired by exceptional circumstance: the need to build a bridge between an all-white naval administration and a predominantly black population. Adams used his authority as bandleader and Chief Petty Officer with the Navy as a source of power, wealth, and influence. Their induction not only helped to defuse the racial tension that plagued the Navy's presence on the island during World War I, but the band, and Adams in particular, functioned as educators to naval administrators about the needs and attitudes of Virgin Islanders. Further, Adams continued to grow into his role as a social leader on the islands, serving as an officer of the local chapter of the Red Cross, helping to found the public library in Charlotte Amalie, and developing the islands’ public school music education program. He traveled to the U.S. mainland for the first time in 1922 to research music education programs, but the highpoint of his naval career was a 1924 tour of the U.S. eastern seaboard. With his U.S. Navy Band of the Virgin Islands in top form, Adams and the band won accolades from concert and radio audiences in Hampton Roads Virginia, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Adams' music is in the style of John Philip Sousa and communicates energy along with a core patriotism. His best known works include the "Virgin Islands March" (1919), "The Governor's Own" (1921), and "The Spirit of the U.S.N." (1924), dedicated to President Calvin Coolidge. This trip would turn out to be the apex of the band's success; the band never again enjoyed the notoriety on the U.S. mainland that its parades in Harlem had generated. In 1931 Adams's unit was transferred to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, when the naval government of the islands was replaced by a civilian administration, thus separating Adams from family, friends, and his source of social influence. Only a dozen works from a reportedly much larger output survived a December 27, 1932, fire that destroyed Adams' St. Thomas home. The blaze killed his daughter Hazel and burnt a cache