The big National Memorial Day Parade in Washington steps off at 2:00 p.m on Monday, May 25. This is the formerly annual event that took a 70-year hiatus and was re-established four years ago.
The parade’s organizers, the American Veterans Center of Arlington, Virginia, tell me it’s the largest Memorial Day in the nation. They expect a crowd of some 250,000 to honor America’s veterans and those who did not come home from America’s wars. The parade will include marching bands, veteran units, and uniformed military personnel.
This year there will be a special tribute to the U.S. Navy that will include Navy veteran Ernest Borgnine, along with actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna, and country music star Lee Greenwood. For more info go to the parade’s web site.
Posted on May 16th 2009 in Events
The 2008 American Veterans Conference will be held November 6-8, the weekend before Veterans Day, in Washington D.C. This is the 11th annual conference put on by The American Veterans Center. The headliner this year is Lt. General Hal Moore (above), the hero of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, who received a VVA Excellence in the Arts Award for his book We Were Soldiers Once and Young. Among other things, the conference will feature a panel called “Baseball Goes to War,” featuring an array of ballplayer veterans including Hall of Famer Bob Feller.
For registration information and the schedule of events http://www.americanveteranscenter.org/AVC_conference-schedule.html For more information email Tim Holbert tholbert@americanveteranscenter.org or call 571-480-4152
Posted on September 17th 2008 in Conferences, Events
VVA’s Chapter 604 in Topeka, Kansas, is sponsoring a tribute to Americans troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on June 14, at 11:00 a.m. Central Time, at that city’s Kansas Expocentre. The tribute, called The Reading, will include patriotic songs and a solemn reading of the names of those service personnel who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As names are read, placards with the fallen troops’ names, date of death and home state will be displayed on the stage by family members and other supporters. A bell will be rung and silenced for each of the 4,533 names. The placards will be given to family members or displayed on a hillside adjacent to the Expocentre. That night, members of the local Junior ROTC will stand vigil over the names. Members of Chapter 604 will give a 21-gun salute and a Taps will be played.
For more information, go to www.thereading.us
Posted on May 27th 2008 in Events
This year will mark the fourth annual Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C., put on by the American Veterans Center. The special guests this year will include Miss America, and the actor Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump),and the famed movie star (and World War II veteran) Mickey Rooney. For info go to, www.nationalmemorialdayparade.com
admin on May 2nd 2008 in Events