Vietnam Vets Ready For “Welcome Home” Parade
This Sunday, Tuolumne County will be hosting a "one of a kind" parade.
Vietnam Veterans of America George Eldridge and Dick Southern were KVML’s "Newsmakers of the Day".
Last February, the Sonora City Council approved the March 28th Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Parade.
Post 391 will host the 1pm parade that will start at the Red Church and proceed down Washington Street following Hwy 49 down Stockton Rd. to the Mother Lode Bank parking lot.
According to Public Affairs Liaison George Eldridge this will be the only Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Parade in the USA. In September Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill recognizing March 28 as the Welcome Home Day for Vietnam veterans.
Eldridge goes on, "This is the parade we never received."
Plans are to invite Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans from all over the state but in particular veterans from Stockton, Modesto, Calaveras and Mariposa counties, Ione, Oakdale, Tracy and the surrounding areas as well as neighboring communities in Nevada to join in the parade.
Post 391 is the largest Vietnam Veterans chapter in California and the ninth largest in the U.S.
The "Newsmaker of the Day" is heard each weekday morning on AM 1450 KVML at 6:47, 7:47 and 8:47am.
Written by mark@mlode.com
