Department of Defense Education Activity music teacher Ryan Davis directs a recording session for “The Military Kid Song” in Sasebo, Japan, April 12, 2025. (Arielle Jones)
A music teacher at a Defense Department school in Japan, along with American and Japanese students, has recorded an unofficial anthem for U.S. military children living overseas.
Ryan Davis — an art and music instructor at Jack N. Darby and Sasebo elementary schools on Sasebo Naval Base — wrote “The Military Kid Song” in 2017 while working for Department of Defense Education Activity schools at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.
On April 12, Davis and a group of students, ages 4 to 16, recorded the song at a studio in Sasebo, accompanied by local Japanese children on instruments.
Davis, who plans to retire after this school year, said he’s leaving the anthem as a parting gift to the DODEA community.
“I’m going to miss the DODEA kids for sure,” he told Stars and Stripes in a phone interview on May 15. “But bringing the song through a recording and getting it out there as I’m leaving kind of makes the closing of this chapter in my life a happy ending, like I’m giving something back to the kids and the families.”
Department of Defense Education Activity music teacher Ryan Davis directs a recording session for “The Military Kid Song” in Sasebo, Japan, April 12, 2025. (Arielle Jones)
Davis said he wrote the song for a Month of the Military Child event at Yokota.
“So, I’m going through the internet, Googling songs for military kids and nothing would pop up,” he said. “We could sing the National Anthem, we could sing the Air Force song, the Army song, the Navy song, but nothing about the military kids. So, I was like, ‘Man, we need a song for the kids and about their experience.’”
A former DODEA student himself, Davis studied music at East Central College in Union, Mo., but left in 1997 to join the Air Force as a geospatial intelligence specialist.
While on active duty, he completed his music degree at Yuba Community College in Yuba City, Calif., and later earned a degree in classical guitar with a minor in education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“So that background helped me to be like, ‘Oh yeah, we don’t have a song, so we’re going to make a song,’” he said.
Children record vocals for “The Military Kid Song” in Sasebo, Japan, April 12, 2025. (Arielle Jones)
The original version of “The Military Kid Song” included only a few verses and a chorus, with Davis on guitar.
“The parents loved it; the kids loved it,” he said. “They were like, ‘Oh, we need more, we need more.’ So, the next year the song developed even more.”
After Davis moved to Sasebo in August 2020, a Yokota parent emailed him asking for a recording of the song. So, he scored it for horns, keyboard, drums and bass, and then found a studio to record it.
“It was a cultural exchange event,” Davis said, adding that the studio offered to record the song for free if its students could participate.
The studio houses the Sasebo Jazz Fan Club, which aims to nurture young musicians, according to its website.
“We went in there, we all knew what we were doing, and the kids recorded their parts with one take,” Davis said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Darby fourth-grader Arabella Sanchez sang in the chorus on the recording, said her mother, Marine Corps spouse Johanna Cupa, during phone and email interviews on May 16.
Cupa, a mother of four who works as a special education assessor for Sasebo schools, said Arabella “was having a hard time making friends” after moving to Sasebo from North Carolina. Davis’ song helped her connect with others and prepare for another move.
“The students are very lucky to have him as their teacher,” Cupa said.
Children pose during a recording session for “The Military Kid Song” in Sasebo, Japan, April 12, 2025. (Arielle Jones)
After 18 years of teaching, David said he plans to turn his attention to family, food and live music.
“The DoD community gave me a lifetime of memories,” he said. “Along with the great fortune to meet so many extraordinary people from many different walks of life, the memories I’ve collected will fill my heart with joy for the rest of my days. I’m incredibly grateful for the military life and that’s why I’m so happy I could give back with a song.”
