HONORING THE BRAVE
Hundreds celebrate 100th annual Veterans Day parade Downtown
Clad in camouflage colors and waving American flags with vibrant posters raised high, hundreds gathered Saturday morning to celebrate Army veterans during the 100th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Veterans Day parade Downtown.
Children laughed as they scrambled to grab lollipops, chocolates and other sweets that were thrown from Army tanks to onlookers during the march.
All branches of military service were represented as veterans, including those from World War II, drove the historic tanks of several wars and waved to onlookers. Posters reading “Thank you Veterans and “We love our Vets” were held by those in the crowd, who stood, bundled in warm clothing, along Liberty Avenue on the chilly Saturday morning.
It was a marked celebration of some of the nation’s bravest men and women, just ahead of Monday’s Veterans Day federal holiday.
“People pretend they don’t see us, but we’re a force to be reckoned with,” said 63-year-old Cynthia Jennings-Davis as she watched several Pittsburgh high school bands march and perform. “Often times people don’t initially recognize female veterans as being veterans. They think that your husband or your boyfriend is the one who served.”
Saturday’s historic parade helps strengthen appreciation of people who fight for this country, Ms. Jennings-Davis, of Oak Hill, said. She served in the Army from 1974 until 1978. But sometimes women in the Army are “invisible” and may not be as quickly recognized, she said.
“If your life is in danger, I bet you wouldn’t care if it was a male or female saving your life,” Ms. Jennings-Davis said. “There is a brotherhood and sisterhood that is supposed to exist, and it exists on the surface.”
“It’s days like this where you can feel a difference,” she added.
Ms. Jennings-Davis was stationed in Germany in the ’70s and worked as a telecommunication center specialist, where messages were sent and received from all over the world.
“A lot of the time, there were drastic messages like the president thinking about going to war, or somebody’s mom may have died, and you have to get that message to that vet,” she said. “We sometimes worked 12-hour shifts.”
One of the biggest issues facing veterans today is a lack of “respect for what we did,” Ms. JenningsDavis said. The issue of homelessness among veterans is also a major issue that many in the community are working to address, she said. Some nonprofit organizations such as the Veterans Leadership Program, which seeks to provide supportive services and housing opportunities for veterans, were among those marching in the parade.
“Veterans are homeless, they’re hungry, they have all types of medical conditions,” she said. “They serve their country and come back and they’re invisible. It’s crazy.”
The key to helping homeless
veterans lies in “the knowledge of support,” said Eric Howze, a post-9/11 combat veteran who has been homeless. He said it was an “honor” to serve his country and the parade is “great.” But the point of helping veterans should be the main focus, he said.
“There is no cookie-cutter way of helping all veterans,” he said. “All veterans need some sort of different support. There are some vets that own their own houses but would rather sleep out in the streets. The biggest thing is housing, employment and innovative therapy.”
Mr. Howze is president of local charity No Hero Left Behind, which seeks to eliminate veteran suicide and homelessness. Sometimes, negative stigmas surrounding war veterans make it hard to find jobs because they are considered violent, he said.
“Everybody has a different story when talking about the war,” he said. “But it’s always the same thing. You may leave the war, but the war doesn’t always leave you.”