Local Navy veteran Todd McGeehan was standing along Evergreen Boulevard on Saturday morning, watching the Lough Legacy Veterans Parade march by at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
He was swapping jokes with fellow veteran Tom Henderson when a kindergarten-aged girl broke off from her Girl Scout troop.
“Are you a veteran?” she asked him, presenting a card decorated in blue and red construction paper stars.
McGeehan is no softie — dressed in full biker leathers at the parade, he’d served seven tours abroad with the military. But when he opened the card, he melted.
“Thank you for serving our countre,” the card read, carefully written in the shaky letters of a kid just learning to write.
A resident of southeast Vancouver, he comes to the parade year after year to experience just this. McGeehan likes to feel like he’s part of the festivities, he said.
“I love it. It brings a tear to my eye, I choke up every time,” he said.
The event was preceded by a Veterans Day Ceremony in the Providence Academy Ballroom presented by the Community Military Appreciation Committee and the Columbia Credit Union. Major General Willard M. Burleson III served as the keynote speaker.
From there, thousands of spectators — adults, children and pets alike — lined the streets at 11 a.m. Saturday. Hauling lawn chairs and waving hand-held American flags, they cheered as the 32nd annual Lough Legacy Veterans Parade got underway.
This year, the parade featured 112 participating groups. Scout troops and first responders, marching bands and local businesses, muscle cars and animal rescues together wound from East Reserve Street along Evergreen Boulevard, ending at Providence Academy.
Hosted by The Historic Trust, 2,500 people marched in the parade “to honor our community’s veterans” ahead of Veterans Day, the Historic Trust’s website stated. The parade’s Grand Marshal was Major Andrew Plasemeyer.
Among the spectators was 10-year-old Soapie Stevens, who’d gained a prime eagle-eye view by hoisting herself up onto the knoll of a tree trunk. From there, she said, the first-time parade goer could keep a vigilant eye out for her sister, who would be driving a tractor outfitted to look like an airplane near the end of the procession.
Despite a week of cold, iffy weather, the November sunshine peeked through the clouds just in time for the parade to get underway.
For regular parade spectators, it was a welcome surprise.
“It’s usually raining,” Hendersen chuckled.
Music thumped from the route, with the Fort Vancouver Pipe Band’s buzzing bagpipes and the 204th Army Band’s meticulous marching. At one point, the Camas High School Papermaking Marching Band roused the parade’s announcers with a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
But along with the music and festivities, the parade struck a somber tone in honor of those who lost their lives. At one point, banners featuring the photos and names of local soldiers who had died recently in combat were carried past the procession by Gold Star families. Those soldiers, 16 in all, came from local families and were killed in action during post-9/11 clashes overseas.
Their young faces served as a solemn reminder of sacrifice in the midst of celebration.
