Air Force reservist relished his chance to perform at Nationwide

Not all of us see the choices we make in high school pay so many dividends down the road, but for Eric Rine, that's been the case.
While at Mount Vernon High School about an hour northeast of Columbus, he needed to pick up an elective class, so he decided to take choir. There, a teacher recognized his singing talent, starting a career in music that continues to this day.
And as his high school career came to a close, Rine felt that being raised in a small town would limit his options of what would come next. His dad and grandfather had served in the military, and though it wasn't pushed in his household, it still seemed like the right move.

"I just knew that growing up the way I did, I probably wasn't going to be able to get a very great head start on adulthood," he said. "You grow up without a whole lot, you grow up in a tiny little town of 150 people, you know that you have to make your own head start. And I thought the military would be a great way to catapult myself into adulthood and learn some skills and earn some college money and all that stuff. I put that GI bill to good use and never looked back."
Put those two things together and it eventually all led to April 27, when Senior Master Sergeant Rine held a microphone near the cannon at Nationwide Arena and performed a rousing rendition of the national anthem ahead of the Blue Jackets' game that evening against Detroit.

Over the years, the United States Air Force reservist has used his singing voice and military ties to become a regular anthem singer at events across the area. Finally, during that April game, it led to him taking the usual place of Leo Welsh during the Blue Jackets' Military Appreciation Night presented by Elk & Elk, something that stood out as a bit of an honor for Rine.
"I have to say overall because of the exclusivity of it, I think the Blue Jackets has been my favorite performance, and I'm really not just saying that because you're interviewing me," he said with a laugh. "It was a huge honor, and what made it really fun was knowing nobody ever gets to take this microphone and sing this song other than Leo in this place other than those few exceptions.
"It was a treat meeting Leo that night, too, because I've looked up to him and admired the way that he sings our anthem."
READ MORE: Elk & Elk Military Salute profiles
Rine said he's performed the anthem dozens of times generally around the state, including singing Memorial Day and the Fourth of July with the Cleveland Indians, at games hosted by the Columbus Clippers and Columbus Crew as well as a golf outing each year organized by former NFL quarterback Brady Quinn, whose father Tyrone served as a Marine.
Since March 2019, Rine -- a CBJ fan who makes it to a handful of games each season -- also has served as one of the backup options for the Blue Jackets should Welsh not be able to make it to a game, though he jokes it hasn't happened yet because Leo is a "machine." And it all started when he took that choir class back at Mount Vernon High School.
"The choir director told me I can sing," Rine said. "I thought she was nuts, but she kept coaching me and kept bringing me along, and that was cool. I joined rock bands and all that kind of stuff. A few years ago, somebody from the USO called and said a sergeant from Rickenbacker said I was in a band and sing and all that. They needed somebody for the anthem for a 5K. I said, 'I don't really do the National Anthem. I'm a rock guy. You need a really good singer for the anthem, somebody with a really good voice,' and they said, 'Nah, it's OK. If you can do it and do it in uniform, we want you.' So I did."
While performing the anthem matches some of Rine's most passionate interests, it is far from the only impact Rine has made with his military service. After enlisting out of high school, he spent four years on active duty, then got out for six years and he says "grew my hair long" before deciding to join the Air Force reserves in 2000.
He has been deployed in support of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Enduring Freedom and has served in the reserves with units in Milwaukee, Youngstown and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton before receiving his current assignment as the senior enlisted manager of the 512th Civil Engineer Squadron at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
"Our primary job in the reserve is to maintain our readiness -- readiness to be deployed, readiness to step in if we backfill for active duty, whatever it might be," said Rine, who is also president of two businesses in Central Ohio.
"Anything the federal government needs us to do, that's what we need to be ready for. So we train for our jobs several times a year. The typical schedule for a reservist is a couple of days a month and a couple of weeks a year. I can't think of a year I've done exactly that. It's always been more."
There is also another special part of his military life that Rine holds near to his heart. Since 2005, he has served as a member of the Air Force Honor Guard, whose mission is to "represent Airmen to the American public and the world."
As part of that, he often plays a role in military funerals, including dignified transfers, which is when a fallen soldier's body is returned home from overseas, all of which are made through Dover Air Force Base and something Rine calls a "really solemn honor."
"The first dignified transfer I ever saw in person was when I was deployed in 2003 and '04 and they were putting a master sergeant on one of the planes, and my goodness, there were thousands of us that were standing out there on the tarmac voluntarily who had gathered that day," he said. "We stood at attention and watched this, and that just renewed my desire to be part of the Air Force Honor Guard.
"By 2005, I was on a base Honor Guard team in Youngstown and I've never looked back. I've done Honor Guard funerals where we fold the flag and present it to next of kin. We do parades. We do all kinds of stuff.
"I think the thing that is most meaningful to me is just thinking of someone some day is going to fold a flag and present it to my next of kin. So it means a lot to be able to do that for dozens of families every year when I have the opportunity."