Plans Readied For Parade
After more than a year of planning, Bob Hopkins, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and former commander of VFW Chapter 1499, is very pleased with how his vision for the 2025 Veterans Day Parade has come together.
“I think it’s come together better than I could ever imagine,” he told The News-Gazette last Wednesday. “The community involvement has been positive in every aspect. Everywhere I turn, if I ask [for something], the response is always positive and it really makes me feel good.”
The main attraction for the parade, which begins at 10:30 on Veterans Day, is going to be local veterans – exactly how many is unknown – walking with their families along the parade route from Oak Grove Cemetery, down Main Street to the old courthouse at the corner of Washington Street. Posters and advertisements about this aspect of the parade have been spread throughout the community for the past several months. Having the veterans joined in the parade by their families is something Hopkins hopes will be meaningful for both the families and their veterans.
“I know my family appreciates that I was in the service, but it’s something you don’t talk about,” he said. “Having a veteran walk in the parade with his family is a nice way for the family to publicly walk with their veteran, and it’s a nice way they can show their honor or pride in that man or woman. And I know it will make the veterans feel good, too, to have that happen. They might walk a little taller that day.”
There hasn’t been any sort of formal sign-up process for veterans who wish to walk in the parade, but Hopkins has asked that any local veterans who would like to participate with their families to report to Oak Grove Cemetery no later than 9:45 a.m. on Veterans Day.
Cheerleaders from the local high schools will be carrying banners for each branch of the service and the veterans and their families will form up behind the banner with their branch of service on it. Parking for the veterans will be available in the lots behind Manly Memorial Baptist Church and Lauderdale A.R. Presbyterian Church, and the bathroom inside the maintenance shed at the cemetery will be made available to the veterans and their families.
Other participants in the parade will line up along Spotswood Drive and Taylor Street on either side of the intersection of Houston Street. These participants include the Lexington Police Department and Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office, Lexington Fire and Rescue, a contingent of cadets from Virginia Military Institute, and several antique military vehicles. Mark Cline will be dressed as Uncle Sam on a float and ConnectionsPlus Healthcare and Hospice will also have a float in the parade. Kendal will provide a minibus for several of its resident veterans who will be unable to walk in the parade, and both the Parry McCluer and Rockbridge County high school bands will participate.
Additionally, students from Waddell Elementary, Central Elementary, Fairfield Elementary, Mountain View Elementary and Maury River Middle School will be marching.
Portable toilets will be available at the intersection of Houston Street and Spotswood Drive and at the intersection of Wallace and Taylor Streets for participants lining up on those streets.
The parade will conclude at the courthouse on Washington Street, where a Veterans Day ceremony will be held. Lt. Gen. David Furness, superintendent of VMI, will be the keynote speaker at the ceremony, and Greg Parker, professor of music at Washington and Lee University, will sing “America The Beautiful.”
In addition to honoring local veterans, the parade and ceremony will also serve as a celebration of several anniversaries, both local and national. On a national scale, 2025 marks both the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Locally, this year is the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the veterans memorial located in front of the courthouse as well as the 100th anniversary of the town’s original war memorial, a captured German cannon from World War I. Both memorials were recently relocated as part of the courthouse square renovation project and now sit side by side.
