Claude Suthard started forming the Garbarina American Legion Post 1523 in 1945, the originator and sponsor of the New York Skyliners drum and bugle corps. But his drum corps activity began even earlier, in 1937, when he marched with PCT PAL, then played soprano horn with McNally Post drum and bugle corps. He also played with Meyer Post Inwood Cadets, Grand Street Boys, Phoebe Apperson Hearst Post and helped instruct the Royal Blues on Staten Island in the years leading up to World War II. He was a member of the armed services from 1941 to 1945. He played French horn with Garbarina/Skyliners from 1949 to 1952 before retiring from drum corps activity to become a police officer. He became a charter member of the Skyliners Alumni in 1984, playing in the horn line, and has been a member of the Alumni Chorus since its inception. He has been a drill instructor for a number of New York-area corps and color guards, including the Tall Cedars of Lebanon drill team and guard when it won four national championships from 1972 to 1976. He has judged marching and manoeuvring and general effect marching and manoeuvring with the All American Judges Association.
