Veterans Day Parade Draws Tens of Thousands of Spectators
Mayor Eric Adams was among the marchers who were led up Fifth Ave. by retired Army Lieutenant General Mike Linnington, who is now CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project.
From Madison Square to 45th Street, tens of thousands of cheering, patriotic New Yorkers lined Fifth Avenue for the annual Veterans Day Parade on November 11
Mayor Eric Adams, who had his cell phone and iPad seized by the FBI in a campaign fundraising probe days earlier, appeared unbothered by the cloud hanging over him as he delivered remarks and joined the marchers.
There was something else in the air too. A sense of pride, and of common purpose, in the American project. This spirit was evident among both the spectators and, especially, among the multi-cultural, multi-generational marchers. Both stood in stark contrast to the discord of recent turmoil seen elsewhere in midtown Manhattan when pro-Palestinian demonstrators had shut down Grand Central for several hours on Nov. 10 and occupied the ground floor foyer of the New York Times building on Nov. 9.
Officers of the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau, some holding the leashes of their four-legged K-9 partners, were a visible presence throughout.
Billed as the largest veteran’s day parade in the country and hosted by the United War Veterans Council, this year’s parade was the 104th edition of the event which began, on November 11, 1919, as Armistice Day. That was the date celebrating the end of the Great War, subsequently known as World War I. Armistice Day became a federal legal holiday in 1938.
In 1954, with World War II and the Korean War now also in the history books, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law a resolution which transformed Armistice Day into Veterans Day.
Saturday’s festivities began with a wreath laying ceremony at the 125-foot-tall Eternal Light Flagstaff in Madison Square Park. This year, the ceremony—with music by the U.S. Army Band (nicknamed “Pershing’s Own”)— included brief comments by U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, and the 2023 parade’s grand marshal, retired Army Lieutenant General Mike Linnington. A 1980 graduate of West Point, among his many other posts during thirty-five years of service, Linnington commanded troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Today Linnington is CEO of Wounded Warrior Project.
A rifle salute by the U.S. Marines and an Army bugler playing taps concluded this solemn ceremony. The line of march began at 9:30 a.m. and continued—with nearly 300 marching bands, floats and other vehicle units—until noon.
Afterwards the opening ceremony, Mayor Eric Adams, who’d been in the reviewing stand, hand over heart, offered an enthusiastic welcome and then a brief speech. Drawing on the theme of the National Anthem, Adams said, “The lyrics of the song that defines us as a nation is not just an accumulation of words. It means a lot, and it says a lot. And it goes throughout the full length of our history.”
“This is the greatest country on the globe,” Adams said, “People do not line our borders to leave America. They line our borders to come to America.”
“There’s no other country with ‘Dream’ attached to its name. No German dream, no Polish dream, no French dream but, darn it, there’s an American Dream, and that dream is alive and well because of the men and women of the armed services,” Adams said.
Adams went on, paying impassioned tribute to the military, “I’m proud to walk down Fifth Avenue with you! We respect you! We love you! We adore you! Grand Marshal, General: take your Fifth Avenue and lead us to victory!”
Grand Marshal Linnington followed this with his own brief remarks, ending with the cheerful order, “Go forth with pride!”
The line of march began at 9:30 a.m. and continued—with nearly 300 marching bands, floats and other vehicle units—until noon.
The line of march began with Ground Zero Volunteers carrying a very large American flag. Following them was the NYPD band and the NYPD Marine Corps Association, the last consisting of cops who are also former Marines, some with flag waving children and other family members.
Hizzoner was joined in the line of march by NYPD First Deputy Police Commissioner Tania Kinsella, whose mother, a Guyanese immigrant, was an Army veteran; NYC Veterans Services Commissioner, James Hendon, who is himself an Army veteran; and NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol, a former Marine Captain who served two tours of duty in Iraq.
Among the many highlights among the hundreds of other marchers were the FDNY Emerald Society Fife & Drum Band, Korean and Vietnam War Veterans Associations; a group of Ecuadorian American veterans proudly carrying their homeland’s red, blue and yellow flag; Black Veterans for Social Justice; the New York City–All City Marching Bang; the Ankeny Centennial High School Marching Band, which came all the way from Ankeny, Iowa; the U.S. Navy Band; the men and women sailors of the USS New York (LPD 21), an amphibious transport ship with the motto “Strength Forged Through Sacrifice, Never Forget”; and submariners from USS Newport News (SSN-750), whose motto is “Thunder From Below.”
One mystery along the line of march occurred at 11 PM, when everything just stopped. Across from the New York Public Library between 41st and 42nd Streets, this was an occasion for Navy sailors to perform some snappy rifle drills, while the marching band ahead of them stood quietly waiting. Minutes passed, and then more time.
The pause was intentional and honors the time the Armistice was signed—at the 11th hour, of the 11th day, on the 11th month of 1918—between Germany and the Allies near Compiégne, France.