Veterans Parade set to step off in Manassas

History will be made Saturday in Manassas as American Legion Post 10 hosts the city’s first ever Veteran’s Day Parade.
“We’re really lucky. We’ve got a great group of people who serve in the American Legion and VFW, and we’ve got super support from the community,” said Manassas Mayor Hal Parrish. “There are many patriotic people who live and work in Manassas.”
The parade will step off at 11 a.m. on Center Street and will march along a route through Old Town. The parade is expected to conclude around 12 p.m. and salutes the veterans who served during World War II. Post 10 Commander “Gunny” Lewis presented the idea of having the parade to the post 14 months ago.
“This was a way we could honor our veterans and active duty personnel as well as educate and inspire community awareness to the service and sacrifices all veterans have endured in the pursuit of freedom,” he said. “With the wars being conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan it was imperative that Post 10 do all it could to enhance community awareness of the many military people currently serving our country who reside in the area. As we further discussed the idea and placed the gears in motion we decided that this first veterans day parade would name as grand marshals, plural, our World War II veterans since we are losing them at a staggering number each week. However, all veterans are honored and have been invited to participate in the parade.”
Senior Grand Marshal and World War II veterans Claude “Buck” Albrite is scheduled to lead the contingent of local World War II veterans expected to participate in the parade.
“They set a model, a protocol, that most of us live our lives by,” said Post 10 member Fred Tompkins, who retired from the Army after more than two decades of service. “They set a baseline that provoked a lot of us to join the military.“
Tompkins, who was born in the late 1930s, said he remembers the day one of his uncle’s shipped out to serve in the Navy and the day he returned home.
“I had four uncle’s and my father’s best friend in the military,” he continued. The men provided Tompkins’ mother, who was a seamstress and tailor, with uniforms.
“I got a Navy uniform, an Army uniform, and a Marine Corps uniform will all the stripes that went with it,” he said with a laugh. “I was like four years old.“
Becoming serious, Tompkins said World War II “was a war that America was behind. It was a war that everyone in America was involved in.”
The Vietnam veteran said that type of support was virtually nonexistent when he came home from his war.
“I didn’t wear my uniform because I didn’t want to subject myself to that criticism,” he said.
Post 10 member Jim Brech is technically a World War II veteran who never fired a shot in that war.
“The Italians threw down their weapons in 1944 in north Africa. They never fought against the United States again,” he said. “However, they did not sign a peace treaty with the United States until 1953. I was in the U.S. Navy in 1951. That makes me a World War II veteran.”
Among the participants in the parade will be the “First Team Honor Guard,” from the 1st Calvary Division out of Fort Hood, Texas; the Marine Corps Base Quantico Color Guard; Fort Belvoir Noncommissioned Officers; soldiers from Echo Company, 169th Engineer Training Battalion from Fort Belvoir; The Army National Guard’s VADPU from Manassas; the Virginia Defense Force Color Guard and Platoon’ the Prince William County Police and Sheriff’s Joint Color Guard; Rolling Thunder Virginia Chapter 3; and the Manassas Young Marines.
For more information on the parade, visit its web site at manassasveteransparade.org.
The public is urged to line the parade route.