Construction work forces Veterans Day parade route change

The route has changed for this year’s Veterans Day parade in Milwaukee because of construction.

Instead of traveling on East Wells Street, the parade will use East Kilbourn Avenue as the main route to the War Memorial.

The parade starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at the corner of North Plankinton and West Kilbourn avenues. It heads east on the north side of Kilbourn to Prospect Avenue, then turns right on Prospect Avenue to Mason Street before turning left on Mason Street to head over the bridge past the War Memorial and into Veterans Park.

“The Wells Street bridge was supposed to be done by November and it’s not,” said Milwaukee Veterans Day Parade coordinator Mary Ann D’Acquisto. “There was no good place for us to cut over to Wells Street so we worked it out with the city that we could go all the way down on Kilbourn.”

The Hop streetcar will run only on the south side tracks on East Kilbourn Avenue, leaving the north side of the street open for the two-hour parade.

To commemorate the centennial of the World War I armistice, parade marshals will be members of the Red Arrow Club of Wisconsin.

Red Arrow is the nickname for the Wisconsin National Guard’s 32nd Infantry Division, which acquired the name for slicing through enemy lines during World War I.

“We decided it would be appropriate to have the Red Arrow Club be our grand marshals because there’s nobody left from World War I,” D’Acquisto said. “They’ll be there to represent the legacy of the Red Arrow Division from World War I to the present.”

Between 90 and 100 units will participate in the parade, which started in Milwaukee 55 years ago.

A memorial service is scheduled at the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center following the parade. Visitors can see a World War I traveling exhibit from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in the War Memorial’s north lobby.