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Uploaded: Thursday, November 1, 2012, 7:46 AM
Updated: Sunday, November 4, 2012, 8:25 AM
Tri-Valley Veterans Day parade steps off at 1 p.m. today in downtown Pleasanton
Area's largest salute to veterans includes marching bands, special tributes at Veterans Memorial Building
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by Jeb Bing
Pleasanton Weekly Staff
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 | The Pleasanton-based Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6298 and American Legion Post 237 will host the 2012 Tri-Valley Veterans Day Parade starting at 1 p.m. today, with a patriotic program of music and messages following at the Veterans Memorial Building.
The event is being held exactly one week ahead of the day the country will celebrate Veterans Day this year, a tradition for the Pleasanton observance so that veterans can join in other celebrations on Nov. 11.
This year's event will feature military and veteran color guards, marching bands, horses, jeeps, Humvees and other military vehicles. Marching along the way also will be Girl Scout and Boy Scout organizations, Scottish pipe and drum units, the Alameda County Sheriff's Posse, elected officials from Tri-Valley cities and veterans from Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea and even World War II.
The U.S. Army Band and the Foothill High School marching band will play patriotic music along the parade.
New features to this year's parade include three flyovers by a T-38 jet fighter plane and then a Vietnam era Huey helicopter and a Coast Guard Dolphin helicopter.
The theme of this year's parade is "Purple Hearts, Honoring Those Wounded in the Service of Our Country." Special tribute will be given to Gold Star families who will be in the parade.
The parade Grand Marshall will be Retired Army Sgt. Victor Thibeault, who served in Afghanistan, was awarded both a Silver Star and a Purple Heart, and is a member of the Army's Wounded Warrior program.
The parade review officer and keynote speaker will be Navy Capt. William Waters (Ret).
Immediately following, the veterans groups will host a Veterans Day ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Building at 301 Main St. with a guest speaker and patriotic music provided by the Pleasanton Community Band.
This year, the U.S. Marines and members of the P-Town Pushrods car club will collect Toys for Tots before, during and after the parade along the parade route, at the review stand in front of the Museum on Main and at the Veterans Memorial Building. Donors are asked to give only new, boxed toys as their contributions.
The parade will start next to the Veterans Memorial Building on Old Bernal Avenue and then continue north on Main Street to St. Mary Street.
For more information, call David Ham at (925) 580-6661.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Oh, wished U Phrased it Differently, a resident of the Downtown neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2012 at 9:19 pm Oh, Jeb, I wish you had phrased AVHS' inability to make the Vetrans celebration differently. I am sure you had no intention of infering that AVHS would not have been honored to participate if they could have by choosing the words, "declined the VFW's invitation."
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Posted by MrsJJHJ, a member of the Vintage Hills Elementary School community, on Nov 2, 2012 at 10:06 pm It seems to me that the PW usually gives Amador particularly favorable coverage. So yes, the report left me, at least, with the impression that the band had declined the invitation for reasons that might not reflect well upon the school.
However, you imply, "Oh, wished U Phrased it Differently", that you know the reason for Amador's non-participation and think it a valid one. So might it not perhaps have been helpful to post a clarification, as well as your criticism of the report?
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Posted by MZ, a resident of the Pleasanton Valley neighborhood, on Nov 4, 2012 at 10:29 am Looking forward ro the parade is going to be bigger and better thatn other times, you never know you might see some airplanes this year
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Posted by Main St. Neighbor, a resident of the Downtown neighborhood, on Nov 4, 2012 at 2:13 pm Being a former member of the Amador Valley matching band, I think I have a little insight, although I don't know the circumstances here. Foothill and Amador compete in two different circuits for competition, Foothill does parades, while Amador does field shows for football games. The only parade we did was at Christmas.
Maybe instead of putting anything in the paper that puts any of our schools in a bad light for something as trivial as this,
some things are better left unsaid.
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