Get ready for one of the biggest and best Veterans Day parades this area has ever seen. More than 80 units with multiple components have signed up to march or perform during this year's parade, to be held Monday, Nov. 12, beginning at 9 a.m. at 16th Street and Atlantic Avenue, and ending at the Tidewater Veterans Memorial at 19th Street, across from the Virginia Beach Convention Center. The City of Virginia Beach has been hosting the Veterans Day parade since 1970. It is sponsored by the Hampton Roads Council of Veterans Organizations and co-sponsored this year by the Marine Corps League.
The parade lineup includes:
This year’s Grand Marshal Earl W. Timmons, past president of the Hampton Roads Council of Veterans Organizations
Marching bands from the Army, Navy and local high school and middle school bands
Buses filled with veterans
Representatives from various veterans organizations, including the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Fleet Reserve Association and Veterans of Foreign Wars
Honor guards from the Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach Police and Sheriffs’ Departments
Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops from across the area, drill teams and more
Following the parade, a ceremony will take place at approximately 11 a.m. at the Tidewater Veterans Memorial, where there will be a wreath laying, a salute to veterans and a flyover with aircraft from the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach.
The Veterans Day proclamation will be read by Virginia Beach Mayor William D. Sessoms, Jr., by Portsmouth Mayor Kenneth I. Wright and Earl W. Timmons, past president of the Hampton Roads Council of Veterans Organizations and this year's Grand Marshal.
Following the ceremony, there will be a dedication at the William L. “Bill” Myers Veterans Memorial Park honoring veterans whose names were engraved on memorial pavers in the last year. Immediately following, a luncheon honoring veterans will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel, across from the Convention Center. The cost is $20 per person.
For the fourth year in a row, the City of Virginia Beach has been selected as a designated Regional Site for the observance of Veterans Day by the Office of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Day National Committee selected Virginia Beach as one of more than 64 designated sites nationwide that serve as a model for community events in honor of our nation’s veterans.
The Hampton Roads Council of Veterans Organizations and this year’s parade co-sponsor, the Marine Corps League, along with the mayors of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach, cordially invite the public to this event.
For more information, contact Mike Maliniak, president of the HRCVO, at (757) 467-9017 or Al Tase, vice president, at (757) 636-9190.
The Tidewater Veterans Day parade is supported by the mayors and city councils of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach. The annual parade features representatives and military vehicles from all branches of the armed services across the region. Veterans who march represent those who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan).
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