“Cadence,” in military contexts, refers to the rhythmic chants sung by soldiers in marching formation. These chants help keep marchers in line with the rhythm of the march, and they are more than just words—they’re an essential part of military discipline and tradition.
Jonathan Fleming’s story just makes you go…“Wow.” The seventh of nine children in his family, he lost his mom in a car accident when he was twelve. With faith in God and the support of family and friends, that tragedy molded him, but did not come to define him. He used it as motivation to finish home schooling at age 16 (with a dual credit equivalent of an associate’s degree). He married at 18 and enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves at 19. Now 23, he has found his footing as a husband, father, soldier, musician…and a once-reluctant online influencer who has grown to use the platform to support, comfort, and motivate military members, veterans, and their families. Postcards met with Jonathan at his studio in Humble, where he shared his story.
My dad founded Heaven Sent Choirs in Houston and taught music there for 16 years, after which my sister took over the program. Because he made training CDs for students, my dad had studio equipment. By the time I was 12, I was going in and playing around with the equipment by myself (I don’t even know if my dad knew <laughs>). I was a part of that program, and that’s where I met my wife when I was in junior high.
The only military influence or history in my family was that my great-grandfather was in the Marines. He definitely shared his experiences with me.
I was also born the year the war on terrorism started. So, I grew up with a pull to those principles and values. My wife was not a fan of the idea of me joining the military, so I had to work on her for quite a while. Eventually, when I talked about entering the reserves and she saw the vision, what it could do for our family, and realized how important it was to me, she said, “Okay, I’ll buckle in. Let’s do it.”
After basic training, when I moved on to AIT (Advanced Individual Training– job school basically, and I am an engineer), I started calling cadence for our group. I started Googling cadences, because I was tired of the same five we were doing all the time. I learned there are very few quality recordings. I could find lyrics, but words don’t mean much without a tune. We found an old cadence called “Down in the Battlefield.” I used that tune, substituted Airborne “sapper” for “ranger” as a nod to my engineer group, and wrote additional lyrics for “Fallen Soldiers.”
A “sapper” is a soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties–breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses, and road and airfield construction and repair. The term sapper comes from the practice of digging “saps”, or trenches, to undermine the walls of fortifications.
My buddies convinced my drill sergeant to let me call that cadence with the group, and she recorded it. My brother-in-law eventually convinced me to post it online to TikTok in January of 2022. I posted it, then deleted the app. It wasn’t until about six months later I went on and saw it had gone viral.
I started doing more cadence recordings for fun, and it just blew up. People started requesting them. By the beginning of 2023, I put out three cadence albums, and I have another album of 12 coming.
It was getting crazy trying to manage my regular job and the internet platform side of things. I worked for five years in construction in Porter and Spring and was an assistant project manager. I made the hard decision to leave that and go into the music work full-time. I had begun to realize I could use the platform to help non-profits and give back to the community that had given so much to me.
They connect people from diverse backgrounds who come together and work together to overcome obstacles and achieve common goals—in not just the military, but police academies, fire academies, and other institutions. They also provide a means of positive memory and connection for veterans and surviving family members.
It varies, but a recent personal music project called “The Garage” was well over 100 hours of work. There’s a lot, with writing, performing the music, video production, and editing. There’s also separate optimizations and uploads for each online source, and backend work crediting those involved and registering the song. It’s a lot more than people think when they see it on a TikTok.
The biggest in terms of popularity, by far, is the cadence “I Left My Home.” In fact, there’s a good chance that one ends up hitting gold status, which is incredible.
The work I’m most proud of is a song I wrote “Strength Like This.” It’s about Samson, but the lyrics never say his name, so the creativity with the lyrics is really special to me. In fact, it’s the reason I decided this January to separate my personal music projects from the military music ones with a separate account. I began to realize that, unless they were military based, songs weren’t going to perform well on that main account.
A big one is Tunnel to Towers Foundation. They just opened Houston Veterans Village in Tomball. They have taken in 150+ homeless veterans, with programs to help them find work and get them counseling and other resources they need. It’s amazing people with this organization can get buy-in from veterans who have been living on the streets for sometimes 20+ years to come into this new home and trust the people and the programs.
U.S. VETS is another organization. They are the ones providing the counseling services and working with the veterans in that home. I’m helping them with a 5k coming up and other projects as well.
What’s been encouraging about working with the veteran non-profits is they don’t see each other as competitors—they see each other as “on the same team.”
Cadences, Volume 4 on the military side, as well as a cadence project that will give a nod to Private Willie Lee Duckworth’s “Sound-Off” chant from 1944, which started the cadence tradition.
On the personal side, some additional video work for “The Garage,” which speaks to the struggle of a provider—so it has resonated with a lot of men, but also a lot of wives, moms, and single moms. It speaks to that moment when you get home, and you just want to sit in your car for a few extra minutes and decompress before you walk inside.
My wife and I wouldn’t be where we are today without a lot of people and a lot of support, and a lot of circumstances lining up. God definitely deserves the credit for the path, so we will keep trusting…and keep marching.
Check out Jonathan’s music through his website at jonathanmichaelfleming.com. Locate his main (military) account on social media under @jonathanmichaelfleming and his personal project account under @officialjonathanmusic.
Postcards Magazine
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