February 27, 2008
-Several soldiers and family members expressed gratitude to El Paso Mayor John Cook for getting the city to put on the parade. They said they saw how much Cook cared when the mayor recounted in the Times his own less-than-hospitable homecoming from Vietnam in which he was pelted with an egg.

-Soldiers took the time to eat and drink plenty of water before the parade started. One guy wasn't just handing out the bottled water to the soldiers, he tossed them 30 feet to them. It didn't look like any one was hit by the flying water bottles.

-Spc. Colin Christopher,23, said he was a bit surprised to hear there would be a parade to honor the troops. "At first, I was kind of stunned that a city this large would do something like this," Christopher said. He said it was something he expected from the small, 15,000-person town in Ohio he is from. Christopher said it was nice to see a person on a bus waving the American flag toward the troops as it passed by this morning. Christopher said life has been a whirlwind since he got back from Iraq in mid-December. He got back Dec. 14 and his daughter, Caelin was born the next day. His wife Megan, 1-year-old Ciearra and newborn Caelin moved into a new home on Dec. 16.

-Spc. Anthony Scheffel, 23, practiced marching with his 19-month old son Brenden before the start of the parade. Scheffel joked that his son wasn't imitating him, but mocking him.

-Merardo "Mano" Bonilla and a few other members of the Texas Veterans Commission have been on Stanton since 10 a.m. He said they're out here to show they are 100 percent behind the troops. -About 40 Boy Scouts took the time to walk the parade route to hand out small American flags to members of the crowd.

-Some people tried to get a better view by standing on building rooftops or on the second and third floors of parking garages. -The 4-1 Cav units each seemed to have a different chant they would sing as they marched. One unit shouted "We are the demons. The mighty, mighty demons." Another had a bit more flair. "We got a lot of soul and a little bit of rock n roll." -Lisa Knowles and her children Breanna, 6, and Brandon Rivera, 8, watched the parade on Stanton Street. Knowles said she had arrived Downtown about 9:30 a.m., but didn't find one for quite a while. She finally found a spot to watch the parade and her husband Sgt. Roger Knowles about 11:45 a.m. Lisa Knowles said she kept her children home from school to go to the parade.

-The parade concluded with the playing of the Army song by the 62nd Army Band. Many in the crowd sang along loudly and proudly. World War II veteran Luis Mario Ortiz, 82, was front and center at Mesa and Mills to cheer on the soldiers. Ortiz said he had volunteered to be in the Army as WWII was in its later years.
"I like to see the other guys," Ortiz said of why he came down to the parade.
The admiration for the current soldiers is not a one-way street. An active-duty soldier noticed Ortiz's World War II veteran's baseball cap and thanked him for his service. Pictures from the parade will be posted here shortly.

Posted by Leonard Martinez at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
A few technical notes