‘Proud to be an American’: Annual Veterans Day Parade brings out thousands | News

The happy, flag-waving parade-goers included U.S. Army veteran Mark Wilkins, who served from 1978 to 2007.

“I’m here every year I’m healthy enough to make it,” Wilkins said. “I’m usually in the parade, but this year I didn’t feel healthy enough to be in it.”

But the Army vet appeared to be enjoying it from the sidelines as a float rolled by carrying volunteers and veterans associated with Honor Flight Kern County, a local nonprofit that, since 2012, has sent more than 1,800 veterans to the nation’s capital aboard some 45 jet airliners.

Many who arrived by car parked as far as six and seven blocks into the neighborhood west of F Street, and even north of 24th Street, a testament to the popularity of parades in Bakersfield.

The parade began at 21st and L streets at 10 a.m. Participants marched west on 21st for several blocks, turned south on G Street for one block, then turned east on 20th Street, ending up beyond M Street.

Parade announcer, KGET’s Jim Scott, a mainstay at the annual event, was back again this year, mic in hand on 21st Street, between H and Eye.

“I’m just trying to do my best,” he said, shaking hands with a friendly competitor. “It’s kind of controlled chaos out here.”

But Scott was being humble as he flawlessly announced the entries as they rolled by, making each one, for that moment in time, seem like the most important entry in the parade.

World War II veteran Victor Killingsworth was designated grand marshall, a fitting title as Nov. 11 marked Killingsworth’s 102nd birthday.

Lovers of classic cars must have been in hog heaven Friday as double-lines and multiple vintages of Chevy Corvettes were followed by the members of the Model T Club of Kern County driving their less racy, but just as beautiful horseless carriages.

But not everybody was a local. Jackie Barcenas was there visiting from San Francisco.

Near the staging area near 22nd and M streets, McKee Middle School’s Roadrunner Regiment waited patiently for their chance to shine.

“We’re just happy to be here,” said one of the regiment’s directors, Sara Hyatt.

“These kids will remember this forever,” she said. “That’s why we’re here. That and to remember and honor our veterans.”

This year, Veterans Day marked the 104th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I, known for a time as “the war to end all wars.”

Thirty million soldiers were killed or wounded and 7 million more became prisoners of war during what was originally named the Great War.

The carnage was so awful, it changed the way Americans thought about war. But memories of that brutal conflict could not prevent the beginning of the Second World War just two decades later.

Or all the wars that have come since.

Near the end of the parade route at 20th and M streets, Alma Gonzales, of Bakersfield, watched this very American spectacle with her sister, Norma.

“My husband and I always attended the parades together,” she remembered.

But her husband, Henry, died on the last day of 2020. Despite her tragic loss, the family tradition continues.

“It’s good to be here to say hello to the older veterans,” she said, noting that she doesn’t want them thinking they’ve been forgotten.

“It’s good to be present, to let them know we appreciate their service.

“It makes me proud,” she said, “proud to be an American.”