Las Cruces Veterans Day Parade honors Operation Desert Storm vets in 2023
The 28th annual Las Cruces Veterans Day Parade set for this Saturday will honor soldiers who fought in Operation Desert Storm.
Operation Desert Storm was the combat phase of the Gulf War fought in 1990 to 1991 between Iraq and 35 nations, including the U.S. The war was a response to Iraq’s military occupation of Kuwait, which has been a sovereign state since 1961.
The Las Cruces parade is organized each year on Veterans Day by an all-volunteer group. It will begin at 11 a.m. in the downtown. The review stand will be at the intersection of Main Street and Las Cruces Avenue.
Staging of floats and other participants will be at the corner of Main Street and Lohman Avenue. The parade will travel north on Main Street to the roundabout, continue south on Water Street and return to the staging area.
Parade organizer Dolores Archuleta said over 80 participants will be in the parade this year, including bands and choirs from five local schools.
There are five parade grand marshals this year. They are Jeffrey Eakman, a Marine, and Anthony Gutierrez, Juana Johnson, Gary Stewart and Kyle Trout, all four who were in the U.S. Army. These five veterans will receive medals. The recognition is scheduled at 10 a.m. at the staging area by Mayor Ken Miyagishima and other invited guests.
2023 Veterans Day ceremony in Doña Ana County
Archuleta said there are 479 names on the Veterans Wall at Veterans Memorial Park of Doña Ana County residents who served in Operation Desert Storm.
According to a news release, the opening ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. at the review stand. Las Cruces High School JROTC will present the colors and Mayfield High School Choir will sing the National Anthem. Retired Sgt. Major Michael Cano of the U.S. Army Band and Herald Trumpeters will also take part in the ceremony.
At 11 a.m., a cannon will be fired at this location to mark the start of the parade. Only blanks will be fired.
Archuleta said members of the Marine Corps League El Perro Diablo Detachment 478 will march in the parade. The detachment earned several first-place honors at the 14th Military Honors Burial Conference in August in Albuquerque.
Melanie Serna, an eighth-grade student at Mesa Middle School, won the 2023 Veterans Parade Poster Contest and will also take part in the parade.
Main Street and several surrounding streets will be closed beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday. Parking will be available south of the former El Paso Electric Co. building, at City Hall, the Doña Ana County Judicial Complex and Thomas Branigan Memorial Library.
Other recognitions on Veterans Day
Sport Clips Haircuts of Las Cruces, located at 3851 E. Lohman Ave. Suite 1 is offering free haircuts to veterans and active service members with valid military ID.
The locally owned franchise location will also donate $2 per haircare service to the “Sport Clips Help A Hero Scholarships.” This is a national program that has been held for 10 years in partnership with the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs announced in a news release that veterans and active military members and their families who live in the state can visit the department’s museums and historic sites free of charge Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 10, 11 and 12.
Sites and museums are spread throughout New Mexico, but three nearby locations include the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo and Fort Selden in Radium Springs.
Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on X, formerly Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Las Cruces honors Operation Desert Storm soldiers on Veterans Day
