The 15th Air Force Band was constituted in Scott Field, Illinois on 1 October 1941 as a band in the United States Army Air Forces. It is the oldest ancestor of the current band. It was redesignated several times: first as the 23rd Army Air Forces Band, then finally as the 523rd Army Air Forces Band in 1944. The band was moved to Camp Shanks, New York in 1944 and was stationed there early 1945 when it sent to serve in Le Havre, France as well as RAF Warton, England. It would stay overseas for the duration of the year, coming home only in December of that year to be inactivated. in the mid-50s, the band was reactivated at March Air Force Base, California on 1 December 1952. On its golden jubilee in 1991, the band was redesignated as the Fifteenth Air Force Band of the Golden West, was moved to Travis Air Force Base to be merged with "America's Band in Blue" (504th Air Force Band).