thedrifter
11-09-08, 07:11 AM
Camaraderie on display at Veterans Parade
By Ryan Sabalow
Sunday, November 9, 2008
SHASTA LAKE - With American flag ribbons and bows stuck to the back of his electric wheelchair, legless Korean War veteran Jack Tolbert slowly cruised Saturday down Shasta Dam Boulevard.
With his great-grandchildren, Lauren Ostrander, 10, and Curtis Ostrander, 7, at his side, he waved to the hundreds of people he passed at the 16th annual Veterans Day Parade.
For many, Tolbert embodies all that Veterans Day stands for.
While a U.S. Army platoon sergeant in Korea in 1953, he jumped on a grenade to protect his fellow soldiers.
He jokes now about that blast that took his legs.
"I got in an argument with a grenade, but I won," he said. "All the men went home alive and uninjured. That's all that counts."
It's sacrifices like Tolbert's that brought so many out Saturday under the cloudy skies above Shasta Lake.
They waved to participants on the more than 70 veterans floats and displays. They shouted and cheered above the throaty rumble of hundreds of motorcycles in the parade's bike-club ride, dubbed Freedom Thunder 2008.
And they gawked, craning their necks skyward, to watch the husky, yet graceful silhouette of a C-17 cargo plane out of Travis Air Force Base that buzzed a few hundred feet above the parade's route.
There were moments when civilians got a chance to see the brotherhood and bonds that exist between servicemen and women, young and old.
Riding in the parade in dress uniform representing veterans of the Gulf War, U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. John Cladopulos shouted "Happy birthday, Marines" as he drove past the Tehama County detachment of the 1140 Marine Corps League honor guard.
The group of former Marines, many of whom were much older than Cladopulos, answered right back: "Happy Birthday!" and "Ooh-rah!"
Julie Brown, the 27-year-old wife of U.S. Air Force veteran Scott Brown, brought her three children, Trinity, 6, Nikki, 4, Johnny, 2, to the parade so they could see just that.
"I want them to grow up with the same respect that so many adults have today for veterans," she said.
That's the whole point of the Veterans Day, said Candace Filek, the parade's grand marshal, who was honored Saturday for a lifetime supporting veterans.
"So they'll never forget," she said.
Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or rsabalow@redding.com.
Ellie
By Ryan Sabalow
Sunday, November 9, 2008
SHASTA LAKE - With American flag ribbons and bows stuck to the back of his electric wheelchair, legless Korean War veteran Jack Tolbert slowly cruised Saturday down Shasta Dam Boulevard.
With his great-grandchildren, Lauren Ostrander, 10, and Curtis Ostrander, 7, at his side, he waved to the hundreds of people he passed at the 16th annual Veterans Day Parade.
For many, Tolbert embodies all that Veterans Day stands for.
While a U.S. Army platoon sergeant in Korea in 1953, he jumped on a grenade to protect his fellow soldiers.
He jokes now about that blast that took his legs.
"I got in an argument with a grenade, but I won," he said. "All the men went home alive and uninjured. That's all that counts."
It's sacrifices like Tolbert's that brought so many out Saturday under the cloudy skies above Shasta Lake.
They waved to participants on the more than 70 veterans floats and displays. They shouted and cheered above the throaty rumble of hundreds of motorcycles in the parade's bike-club ride, dubbed Freedom Thunder 2008.
And they gawked, craning their necks skyward, to watch the husky, yet graceful silhouette of a C-17 cargo plane out of Travis Air Force Base that buzzed a few hundred feet above the parade's route.
There were moments when civilians got a chance to see the brotherhood and bonds that exist between servicemen and women, young and old.
Riding in the parade in dress uniform representing veterans of the Gulf War, U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. John Cladopulos shouted "Happy birthday, Marines" as he drove past the Tehama County detachment of the 1140 Marine Corps League honor guard.
The group of former Marines, many of whom were much older than Cladopulos, answered right back: "Happy Birthday!" and "Ooh-rah!"
Julie Brown, the 27-year-old wife of U.S. Air Force veteran Scott Brown, brought her three children, Trinity, 6, Nikki, 4, Johnny, 2, to the parade so they could see just that.
"I want them to grow up with the same respect that so many adults have today for veterans," she said.
That's the whole point of the Veterans Day, said Candace Filek, the parade's grand marshal, who was honored Saturday for a lifetime supporting veterans.
"So they'll never forget," she said.
Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or rsabalow@redding.com.
Ellie