Hundreds of veterans and family lined Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta Saturday for the 43rd annual Georgia Veterans Day Parade.
Over 4,000 participants from various veteran organizations, Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) units and battalions marched down Peachtree Street from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. starting at 15th Street and ending at 5th Street, passing through the heart of Atlanta as attendees cheered and waved from the sidewalks.
It was a family affair as kids, parents and grandparents dressed in patriotic colors and waved their American flags. Old timers had come prepared with lawn chairs while others had happened across the parade while running errands in Midtown.
Rhonda Willis, 61, was on the way to meet her son in Midtown when she noticed Peachtree Street was blocked for the parade. Before moving to Brookhaven, the former Midtown resident said she attended the parade nearly every year, noting a similar level of energy and popularity that the celebration has maintained over the years.
“I love this city, because there is always something going on, always something to celebrate,” she said. “It keeps you busy.”
Willis said her late husband served 12 years in the Air Force, with some of those years in the Vietnam War, while her father served in the Army during World War II.
“I just know a handful of people I know who served as I’m sure many of these people here do too,” she said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Billy Poole, 80, sat in front of the Woodruff Arts Center as he waited for the parade to embark. Poole was drafted in the Vietnam War after graduating college in the 1960s when he was 22. He recalled being sent to Germany where he served in the Signal Corps and relayed important communications to officials.
“I’m grateful I wasn’t put in the infantry, because I told them I can’t kill anyone so they put me in communications,” the North Carolina native said.
After serving in Europe for two years, he said he came back home to hostility and criticism as the war became increasingly unpopular in the U.S.
“The worst thing about being a Vietnam War veteran was that we weren’t heroes after we got back home,” he said. “We were considered the villains and asked how many children we killed. But I’m proud of my service.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Junior ROTC units from various Georgia high schools including South Atlanta High School and Maynard Holbrook Jackson High School brought the energy as students in the cadet-led program marched and chanted, evoking cheers from the crowd. The parade featured various other groups including the Taiwan Veterans Association in Atlanta that waved and passed out Taiwanese flags and the Korean Veterans Association that featured traditional Korean musicians and dancers wearing colorful traditional Korean clothing called hanboks.
Other JROTC students in Georgia held their own celebrations this weekend, including Gwinnett County’s Grayson High School at the New South Tailgate BBQ in Lawrenceville Sunday. Tom Nguyen, 17, joined JROTC freshman year because he knew he wanted to join the military from an early age. He soon discovered that the program was not just about building physical strength for the military but leadership and community building.
“If you don’t know where you belong, it gives you a sense of belonging,” he said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
JROTC was also a way for Kyle Gallentine, 17, to find friends and a community after a year of virtual learning due to the pandemic.
“More recently, Veterans Day has helped me value my connections and relationships with the people here as well as my grandfather [who is a U.S. Army veteran],” he said.
Colonel Al Fracker retired from the U.S. Army in 2011 and oversees the JROTC program at Grayson High School. For Fracker, Veterans Day is also about his family who supported him through his absence while he served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Veterans Day is not only honoring those who served our country but just as much about the family that supported them through all that,” he said. “I think of my wife and my family.”
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