It has been said that many a man has quivered in his boots at the sound of Major Barrett Dill?s voice.

Yet when you meet this man, who has become an icon of the Bermuda Regiment, the only thing about him that?s intimidating is his 35 years military experience.

In the past five years alone, Major Dill has taken the Regiment Band and Corps of Drums on an international road to stardom.

Now, facing retirement after more than three decades, the man everyone in Bermuda has come to love says he is ready to hang up his baton.

Major Dill joined the military on January 26, 1971 at the age of 14 as a junior bandsman and in 1982 graduated from the Royal Marine School of Music with a first-class musician certificate. This was followed with him earning his bandmaster?s degree from the Royal Military School of Music in London six years later.

He was promoted to the position of bandmaster in September 1988 and Director of Music less than four years later when he was still a captain. In 1995 he was promoted to Major.

As Director of Music he led the band on numerous overseas tours of duty, including training with the US Marine Corps in North Carolina, the Jamaica Defence Force in Kingston and the Danbury Brass Band in Connecticut.

He has also travelled extensively with the band, touring across the United States, parts of Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Honolulu and toured with the Golden 8 Fanfare Trumpeters, performing in Toronto, Ottawa, Switzerland, Germany and France.

In 1994 he was chosen as the Bermuda Regiment?s most outstanding officer of the year ? a feat that was repeated in 1993 and again in 2005 ? sharing the honour this year with Major Stephen Caton, who co-produced the Bermuda Tattoo with Major Dill at the Royal Naval Dockyard in October this year.

?This was quite suitable for me to end off on a high note,? he said.

However the one thing that Major Dill will always be remembered for was leading the Regiment Band and Corps of Drums to stardom at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland in 2003.

As the entire world watched in awe ? thanks to the coverage by the BBC ? Bermuda?s men and women marched their way into the hearts of everyone who saw them.

Following their participation in the Edinburgh Tattoo, Bermuda was invited to the prestigious Bremen Music Festival in Germany where they earned the ?Best in Show? in 2005.

Major Dill attributed the win to the truly ?multi-cultural? representation of the Island at the festival.

?It was an all-white Bermuda Island Pipe Band, black representation in the Bermuda Regiment Band and the African-connection in Bermuda?s Gombeys, all live in one united Bermuda show, which earned us the Best in Show,? he said.

Major Dill added that while the Edinburgh Tattoo focused on the Regiment Band and the Gombeys, the performance in Germany focused on the Regiment Band, the Bermuda Island Pipe Band, the steel pan player and the Gombeys.

?It has been a wonderful adventure and I?m so proud to have the privilege to have served Bermuda for that time,? he said.

But this is just one chapter closing for Major Dill as another opens in January when he returns to school to earn his degree in Management.

He jokingly adds that he will be hunting for another job when he gets it!