RSSVeterans gone, but never forgotten
Local servicemen and women lead communities in remembering soldiers who died defending our nation
Yakima Herald-Republic
YAKIMA, Wash. -- Led by a color guard, Marines and soldiers carrying banners that recognized their fallen comrades marched with their eyes straight ahead at the front of Wednesday's annual Veterans Day parade in Yakima.
Army Sgt. Jose Honrado didn't find out until minutes before the column stepped off that he was carrying the banner of Sgt. 1st Class Larry Morrison, a fellow medic.
"That made it all the more fulfilling," Honrado said.
Morrison, who lived in Terrace Heights, was called up from the inactive reserves for the war in Iraq. He had finished his active-duty career as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the base clinic at the Yakima Training Center.
Morrison was killed in September 2005 when an enemy bomb exploded near his Humvee while he was on patrol with a Marine Corps unit.
Honrado is assigned as a flight medic for the training center's Army Air Ambulance Detachment.
He said the greater Yakima area's support for the military goes beyond attending the parade -- businesses and landlords sometimes offer discounts for those in uniform, for example.
"It's definitely a privilege to be here in Yakima and serve the community," said Honrado, a Tacoma native who was deployed to Iraq with a Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis.
In the Marine ranks, Navy corpsman Aaron Ramirez carried the banner honoring Cpl. Dustin Sides, the first of 10 service members killed in Iraq with ties to the Yakima Valley.
Corpsmen serve alongside Marines to provide emergency medical care on the battlefield. Ramirez is now part of the inspector-instructor staff for Bravo Company of the 4th Tank Battalion in Yakima. He served in Iraq in 2006.
Ramirez said Sides was the same as all Marines, who know that they may have to die to protect their country and their fellow Marines.
"When the call came for him to answer, he answered it with open arms," said Ramirez, who has had contact with the Sides family since being assigned to Yakima in 2007.
A crowd estimated by police at between 3,000 and 4,000 -- significantly larger than in some recent years -- lined Yakima Avenue from Naches Avenue to Sixth Avenue to watch the banners and other parade entries pass by.
Beryl Thomas of Yakima, a communications sergeant in the Army Air Corps during World War, rode in the parade in a friend's 1947 Willys jeep. He wore his old uniform, which he can still wear as long as he doesn't worry about the buttons.
He said people sometimes thank him for his service.
"I appreciate that," he said.
Sally Pierone of Terrace Heights said she has regularly attended the parade since moving to Yakima six years ago. This year, she watched her son, Jonathan, march as part of the Junior ROTC unit at East Valley High School.
A sophomore, he plans to enter the Army when he turns 18. She said she's ready to see him in uniform.
"They're why we have America, and it's important to support them," she said.
There was a similar scene in Prosser as hundreds of spectators lined the downtown streets to watch the parade, waving flags and holding signs of support.
The fifth annual parade featured 22 entries, about twice as many as last year, said organizer Deb Brumley.
Led by the color guard of Lower Valley VFW posts, the procession halted twice along the route -- once in front of the True Value hardware store and once at the intersection of Sixth Street and Meade Avenue -- for
21-gun salutes and renditions of taps, played by Pete Felicijan on his trumpet.
Though not a veteran himself, Felicijan, 45, began serving as the honorary bugler for Lower Valley VFW posts in honor of his late father, Al Felicijan, an Army veteran who died about 10 years ago.
"That's my way of giving back," he said.
Don and Judy White, both 60, of Sunnyside watched the parade from the bed of their Ford pickup parked on Meade Avenue.
Don, a Marine veteran, stood up and saluted the color guard and several Boy Scout troops as they walked by. Don, who sometimes rides his Harley Davidson motorcycle in parades, says he admires the work of Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts.
"I was in every one of them when I was a kid," he said.
* Ross Courtney contributed to this report.
* Mark Morey can be reached at 509-577-7671 or mmorey@yakimaherald.com.
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Watch Veterans Day parade
I cannot thank you, soldiers and vets, enough for your service!
Report ViolationAnd let's not forget our brave men and women on the police force who protect miraculously while being terrorized by their own chief. Here's a cute polical satire cartoon (rare for Yakima) of local politics. Copy and paste url
http://img267.imageshack.us/i/image3m.jpg/
wimpi how low can you stoop this low, this is about veterans and what they have done for America, you have no shame.
I also thank My Fellow Veterans for the freedoms we have today.
BigDave
There's nothing here to upset any veterans, give me a break. It definetly says it's gonna be light hearted. I think what's really bugging you is that you're such good buddies with Rosenow. And it was kinda weird that you were referring to jail employees as officers just like our cops a month ago. That's kinda strange, they don't need near the education or decision making skills. Plus when Steve got canned you were blaming me. In addition it was you or your buddies that didn't even think it was against the law to have jail employees in black and whites following people all day long and pretending to be cops. That's pitifull, I hope you realise. In one incidence that came up one was even wearing a fake name tag of a real cop. I don't like to start diagnosing everbody like Nick, but I think you should think of calling mental health. Here you are trying to harrass me off the blogs, and it's something that's on another website. Why don't you admit it, you're a cop or military wanna be who's never gonna pass the testing? Getting yourself worked up for the new Rosenow show down.
Political satire is something all public figures should get used to and they don't need to run and get their chihuahua gaurd dogs on everybody.
You shouldn't be getting the whole da_n Granato thing going on this site, I'm sure it disgusts most military people to see Granato in a uniform. And now his buddy Nick is running around promoting illegal youth centers where every other house has a pedophile in it. You're hanging around with the wrong people so don't align yourself with the military because they would shun you .
I just thought of something that concerns the military and I think it was BigDave who said Steve was a decorated Marine but ignored requests for some kind of documentation. I think this would be a good time to straighten this out for me and for the military.
This is about appreciation of our vets, myself included. Anything other then that is way off topic.
Report ViolationStill not ready to provide the documentation on your "hero marine". Do you not know it is a very serious crime to identify yourself as a decorated marine, maybe you should tell Steve sometime when he isn't crying his eyes out. This page is about a holiday not a memorial. Maybe you should be selling cemetary plots somewhere. Your group of patsys is boo hooing all over the blogs about how I take a very sad subject and desecrate it, and they're not even about sad things, they're about a theft and a holiday. Besides, these things are supposed to be interesting and informative, and your brown nosing is getting old. I'm not here for you to like me "BigDave", let's get that established right now. You hang out with some real scumbags and if I ever found you liking me I wouldn't be pleased. I'm gonna be working on something really meaty now, so I won't have that much time for the blogs, like Nick. This time, I'm hoping to do some real damage to your friends, instead of just hurting their feelings. I'm hoping to stir up a real brouhaha, that if they were smart, Rosenow would run back to TX with Sam. I've been poking around this for 15 years, you learn alot in that time. Again, I will say that if you really don't know what's rotting Yakima, then you are a lucky man and may it stay that way. I appreciate your loyalty to your friends an there's nothing wrong with that. With all this talk about staying on topic is there someplace where this is listed? The blogs really do generate into a silly Granato worshipping session, and it's mind numbing to read them. There was a lawman from Texas that said Sam blogs about himself on the company dime. And when someone's a public figure, it's way out of line for his friends to jump in and try to run you off. If there was a hit counter, I think you would find out that a lot of people read these things and it's supposed to an open forum. People with derogatory comments about Sam have a right to express them. However, please do not, I can tell you, he is pitifully vengeful. Oh, no LOOKOUT HERE COME THE UNLICENSED MENTAL HEALTH EXPERTS If this wasn't so disgusting it would be hilarious
Report Violationwimpi as to reference to "Marine Hero" and "Steve" this must be an inside joke of yours as I am not privy to what you are addressing and to ask me to verify something I have not been involved it or aware of is ridiculous.
As for supporting our law enforcement, yes I will support them until at such time I see illegal acts that go unanswered, which I have not seen.
The title of the article is "Veterans gone, but never forgotten" lets get back to the subject and honor our veterans.
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