The annual Auburn Veterans Day parade began in 1965 as a way to honor veterans and active duty soldiers of the Vietnam and Korean Wars along with the older veterans of World War I and World War II. With only 23 days to prepare for the inaugural event, parade officials were able to bring together local businesses, military organizations, and the media to create a parade that would go one to become one of three officially designated Regional Veterans Day sites in Washington, along with Fort Vancouver and West Richland.
The Beginnings of Veterans Day
A chilly, overcast November morning greeted the planners of Auburn's first Veterans Day parade. The small group of men had been working at a feverish pace for the previous month to arrange for the parade and other observance events around town, but on the morning of November 11, 1965, they still were not completely sure what was going to happen once the parade got underway. When the first floats began rolling down Main Street, all they could do was stuff their cold hands deeper in their pockets and keep their fingers crossed.
Veterans Day was not always a big celebration in Auburn. The national holiday began its life as Armistice Day, a remembrance of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on November 11, 1918, which marked an end to World War I. Armistice Day was rarely marked with large celebrations in Auburn. Instead, it was usually observed with somber declarations and moments of silence. Branches of the military and military-affiliated organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars used Armistice Day as a chance to recruit new members or place ads in newspapers and magazines. Schools and businesses did not close, and life went on generally as normal.
In 1938, Congress made Armistice Day a legal holiday, ensuring that at least students and public employees would have the day off. Its official purpose according to the law was as "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace," but in practice it was most commonly used as a chance to honor the surviving veterans of World War I. These changes in legislation did little to alter how the day was celebrated in Auburn. It would take the tragedy of the Korean War to catalyze a shift in the holiday.
The Korean War was the first war in the recent memory of Americans that did not end in a resounding victory. When World War II veterans returned home, it was with great fanfare and tickertape parades celebrating a definitive victory for "our" side against a clear and aggressive enemy; when veterans returned from Korea, it was with the cloud of an inconclusive stalemate over their heads and a question that no one seemed to be able to answer: Why were American soldiers fighting that war? Was it worth it? World War II veterans, who now held positions of authority in business and government after being home for nearly a decade, wanted their Korean War counterparts to be afforded the same respect they had received despite the ambiguous outcome of the war itself. Toward this goal, veterans organizations began lobbying state, local, and federal government officials to honor all veterans in an official way. In 1954 their efforts were rewarded: the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day to be more inclusive of the veterans of all U.S. wars.
Veterans Day in Auburn
In Auburn, the new Veterans Day holiday was marked very much as Armistice Day had been: with official proclamations, the occasional banner, and little else. This would change with the election of Robert "Bob" Gaines as mayor in 1964. His early November election left only a few days to prepare for Veterans Day, but he still made a notable effort by issuing a long public proclamation in honor of the day and made sure it was reprinted in the newspaper; 1965 would be his year to truly put a larger focus on Veterans Day.
Like so many other well-intentioned politicians, the realities of life and politics got in the way of making elaborate, early Veterans Day plans. The Vietnam War, now in its 10th year of U.S. involvement, was a divisive issue even in a military-positive town like Auburn, and any war-related discussion was bound to cause sparks. Strikes, protests, budget issues, and construction projects took up a great deal of the city council's attention. Despite these distractions, Mayor Gaines felt strongly enough about the issue of honoring veterans that he found time in the middle of October to send out a letter to all of the civic organizations in Auburn with a strongly worded request to celebrate the upcoming Veterans Day holiday.
Unlike previous celebrations of veterans that focused on wars that were already over, Gaines made it crystal clear that he expected this Veterans Day to especially honor the members of the military who were currently fighting in Vietnam. His ally in this public discussion was retired Colonel W. C. Vine, who had spent a large part of his career as an ordinance commander at nearby Fort Lewis. In an op-ed piece published October 20, Vine wrote:
"[Observing Veterans Day] is important in a day when our outnumbered troops in Viet Nam are being maligned by placard-carrying protestors. And this is important in a day when draft-dodgers are getting as much exposure from the news media as the Los Angeles Dodgers ... I am asking you and your organization to help revitalize the observance of Veterans Day. We need your help to stimulate the spirit of patriotism and pride in the accomplishments of our Armed Forces, both past and present, toward the preservation of the ideals of freedom and democracy" ("November 11 -- Significant To All").
The opinion of the mayor on objectors to the war effort continued to be strident throughout his term. However, he wasn't alone in his feelings. Letters to the editor of the Auburn Globe-News from soldiers and the families of soldiers encouraged readers to "punch those d--- dirty draft dodgers in the face" ("From Viet Nam ...").
Parade Preparations Begin
The mayor read his Veterans Day observance letter aloud at the city council meeting on October 18. This would give city officials and civic organizations just 23 days to make all of the necessary arrangements for the massive, city-wide celebration envisioned by Mayor Gaines. The first order of business was to find someone else to be in charge of the logistics of the entire celebration. Colonel W. C. Wine was appointed as the general chairman for the Veterans Day event, and Lewis Hitchcock became the parade chairman.
The two very quickly got to work soliciting advice and favors from the community, especially the military community at Fort Lewis that Colonel Vine was already connected with. Within a week, they had met with officials from Fort Lewis who agreed to assist the parade by providing soldiers to work as labor at the parade and to drive some military vehicles down the parade route. The most impressive addition to the parade that the Fort was able to help with, however, would be two massive decommissioned military weapons: a Nike-Ajax Zeus B missile and an M-56 Scorpion self-propelled anti-tank gun. Both weapons were manufactured in the mid-1950s and were strongly associated with the American military during the Vietnam War — the M-56 as an on-the-ground support system in Vietnam, and the Nike missile as an anti-aircraft defensive measure on American soil.
Officials at Fort Lewis agreed to arrange for the transportation of the decommissioned weapons to Auburn, and even agreed to display and escort them down the parade route. They just had one condition — the weapons would stay in Auburn after the parade was over. With the blessing of Mayor Gaines, the deal was struck, but they would still need to figure out where to put two large pieces of decommissioned military equipment.
Wine and Hitchcock had more on their minds than just making arrangements for the contents of a parade. If this was going to be the grand and successful venture Gaines envisioned, they would need people to actually show up to see the parade, too. The parade planners worked closely with the Auburn Globe-News newspaper to make sure that each issue of the weekly had as many articles, ads, and announcements about the upcoming festivities as possible.
In the October 27 edition, it was announced that a contest would be held for veterans of World War I and World War II: whoever was the oldest veteran of each war who was able to both attend the parade and do so in his original uniform would receive a prize. By November 3, the parade promised to be two hours long and special invitations to the festivities were extended to the "Gold Star" mothers of soldiers who had died in combat. By November 10, the eve of the parade, it had been announced that the parade would have 100 participating units, over 1,900 marchers, and include a fly-over of a Boeing 707 and the brand-new, still-in-testing Boeing 727.
If this wasn't enough to draw crowds, the businesses of Auburn also helped make a convincing case for why one should attend: they would all be closed until noon the day of the parade. This was another part of Mayor Gaines' challenge to the community, and it was an integral part of the success of the parade. In the 1960s, most businesses and schools were open all day on November 11. If they remained open, employees and students would be unable to attend the parade, much less participate in it. With the businesses closed, not only would those citizens be able to attend, they would be unlikely to be distracted by any other activities in town.
On the morning of November 11, a cold and overcast sky greeted the parade planners. As the floats and performers began to trickle in to their assigned spots, though, the clouds burned off and left everyone sparkling under a chilly winter sun.
Main Street had been closed off from M Street to the railroad tracks. Parade goers crowded together in their coats and mittens to see what would happen. Flags were seen on every surface, from the tiny flag lapel pins handed out to those on the sidewalks to a large flags hung in front of nearly every home. Businesses along Main Street had taken extra care to drape their storefronts with flags and other stars-and-stripes decorations. Children along the parade route were all given small cloth flags on sticks to wave excitedly.
Ed Garre, the local radio personality from KASY in Auburn who was the master of ceremonies, announced each parade unit from his perch at the start of the parade between E and F Street. Of special note in the newspaper's account of the parade was the participation of the Shamrock Drum & Bugle Corps from Seattle, and the appearance of Miss Auburn 1965, Eugenia Bloom. Along many of the side streets were static displays from local military organizations, and even a line of soldier chefs using large-batch military kitchen equipment to bake cookies and brew warm coffee for parade goers.
Even the decommissioned weapons found a warm reception at the end of the parade. Once the crowds were finished cheering for them, they were driven to City Park (now called Veteran's Memorial Park) and installed alongside the nine trees that had been planted in the park in honor of the veterans of World War I. It was a fitting symbol that accomplished exactly what Mayor Gaines had hoped for: honoring the veterans of Vietnam and Korea right alongside their World War I and II predecessors.
Legacy of the Parade
At the end of the day, the parade was numerically somewhat less successful than its planners had promised. There had been a total of 1,200 marchers, short of the expected 2,000. The Boeing flyovers never appeared, and many of the invited state dignitaries opted to stay home. Despite these minor setbacks, the parade as a whole was a massive success, and it put Auburn on the map as a city that was ready and willing to honor its veterans. By the time the 1966 Veterans Day parade was in the works, Auburn had been officially designated as the Regional Veterans Day Parade location, and state senators and representatives were vying for invitations. It continued to grow from there.
In 2015, the 50th anniversary of that first hastily planned event, the Auburn Veterans Day Parade expected more than 200 different units and 5,500 parade participants.
