"We've failed our vets"

OUR VIEW: We've failed our vets
WickedLocalMarshfield
Posted Nov. 6, 2015 at 12:30 PM

Not to mention, does thanking a veteran once a year really mean we care? Every day, there are veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, living with the horrific conditions they suffered for our freedom, and there are those who have trouble finding housing or jobs.

We’ve failed.

As a community, we’ve failed our veterans.

It’s not just that we canceled the parade in their honor.

It’s that we let the veterans believe it was in their best interest to cancel it.

When the news first came out that there would be no Veteran’s Day parade in Marshfield this year because of lack of spectators, we wondered two things right way: How do you cite lack of attendance in canceling a parade that hasn’t happened yet, and how does it make veterans feel?

After conducting multiple interviews, we learned it wasn’t just the lack of residents who attended the annual parade, but even veterans weren’t really that interested.

That’s what’s most striking. That’s where we failed. We’ve let our veterans believe they aren’t important.

Historically, our society has never done a very good job at saluting veterans. We’ve even shunned veterans when we didn’t agree with the war they fought in. We saw it after Vietnam, but we’ve seen it much more recently also with Iraq and Afghanistan.

We’re still sending people to war, creating new veterans all the time, and maybe that’s lending to our apathy.
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Massachusetts Town Canceled Veterans Parade?

Veterans Parade ends in tragedy 4 dead 16 wounded

UPDATE
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Train hits trailer carrying wounded veterans in Texas parade; 4 dead
By NBC News staff

James Durbin / Midland Reporter-Telegram
Bystanders react after a flatbed tractor-trailer carrying wounded veterans and their families during a parade was struck by a train Thursday in Midland, Texas.

Updated at 12:43 a.m. ET: A train crashed into a tractor-trailer carrying wounded veterans and their spouses in a parade in Midland, Texas, killing at least four people, authorities told NBC News.

At least 17 people were hospitalized, city officials said. Twenty-four veterans and their spouses were on the tractor-trailer, according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram. NBC station KWES of Midland said the tractor-trailer was part of the Show of Support / Hunt for Heroes parade carrying veterans and their spouses to a banquet in their honor. The benefit dinner was being put on by Show of Support, Military Hunt Inc. in Midland on Thursday night, according to the organization's website.
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Mayor Perry on veterans train tragedy 11.15.12

Early Edition: Four killed, 16 injured in parade accident
My West Texas
By Audrie Palmer and Sara Higgins

Four people were killed and 16 were injured Thursday night after a train struck a Show of Support parade float en route to an annual event at the Horseshoe.

Two of the individuals were killed at the scene, while two died at Midland Memorial Hospital. Two victims were transported to Lubbock and several others released from MMH late Thursday evening, said Chief Price Robinson of the Midland Police Department. Marcy Madrid at Midland Memorial Hospital told the Reporter-Telegram late Thursday that of the 16 injured admitted to Midland Memorial, 10 people were treated and released, four were still in stable condition, one was in critical condition and one was transported to Lubbock.

A float carrying veterans and their wives in the ninth annual Show of Support parade was struck by an eastbound train around 4:36 p.m. at the corner of Garfield Street and Industrial Avenue, Robinson said.

The parade was taking 24 veterans and their spouses from the DoubleTree by Hilton to the Horseshoe in south Midland.

According to officials, the trailer hit was the second of two that were pulling veterans near the end of the parade route. The first trailer had already crossed the train tracks.

The trailer was carrying 26 passengers -- 12 heroes, 12 spouses and two civilian escorts, Robinson said.

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Veterans of Korea and Vietnam get special focus during Veterans Day Parade

Veterans Day Parade in Auburn stirs pride for a soldier mom
Despite the rain, thousands thronged the sidewalks of Auburn's Main Street to watch the 200 military units, more than two dozen high-school marching bands, Army tankers, drill teams and bagpipers pass by. The event is billed by the city as one of the largest in the country honoring veterans.

By Sonia Krishnan

Seattle Times staff reporter

This year, the parade paid special tribute to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Dozens who fought in Korea and Vietnam received cheers and praise as they walked the one-mile route.


"Welcome home!" shouted Gary Knutson to a tanker filled with Vietnam vets.


"It's a brotherhood," explained Knutson, who served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966. "Whether you know (the vets) or not," it's like family when you see one another, he said.

It still feels a little surreal.

Sgt. Lyn Kibler can actually hold her 3-year-old son now. And when he wants to hear her voice, he doesn't have to listen to a recording she sent to him from Iraq. He just says "Mom," and there she is.

Kibler, 25, returned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in March after a yearlong deployment. On Saturday, she wore fatigues and walked with her son, Azrael, in the 45th annual Veterans Day Parade in Auburn.

Despite the rain, thousands thronged the sidewalks of Main Street to watch the 200 military units, more than two dozen high-school marching bands, Army tankers, drill teams and bagpipers pass by. The event is billed by the city as one of the largest in the country honoring veterans.

Some brought children decked out in red, white and blue, while others brought dogs, such as one golden retriever with an American flag around its neck. Everywhere, people beamed with pride.

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Veterans Day Parade in Auburn

Confederate flag vs American flag all over again in Homestead FL

If they think this is a way to honor all parts of our history, then fine, but they better find a lot of Native Americans to add their fight against US forces as well as going all the way back to the Revolutionary War and the loyalist that tried to kill the Patriots. It was not just the Civil War that pitted American against American in battle. So why have it that way now?

The Civil war put American against American. Both sides had ancestors fighting and dying for what they believed in this nation divided. Since there are no living Civil War veterans, perhaps the parade to have Confederate descendants in is Memorial Day instead of Veterans Day. After all, this is the one day out of the year that is just for our nation's veterans, in other words, living veterans of a united nation, all serving together, no matter what their ancestors believed in or side they took. Veterans come from all over the nation, every city and town as Americans and this day, this one day, should honor that to honor them.

Amid Confederate flag flap, veterans aim to save Homestead Veterans Day Parade
By TANIA VALDEMORO
tvaldemoro@MiamiHerald.com
The Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 121 has marched in the annual Veterans Day Parade in Homestead for at least a dozen years.

They hope to march this November, too, and that parade organizers can find a solution to resolve the controversy that erupted over a group of Confederate descendants marching with a battle flag for the first time in 2008.

''We don't want the parade to be canceled,'' said Dennis Magno, a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 121.

Since the Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce leaders voted unanimously to disband the parade after the controversy erupted, veterans and residents have been calling the chamber to oppose canceling the parade, said Jerome Williams, the chamber president.

On Thursday morning, officials from the chamber's military affairs committee unanimously voted to defer making any decisions on continuing or disbanding the popular 47-year-old event.
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Veterans aim to save Homestead Veterans Day Parade