MILL CREEK — The first Veterans Memorial Day Massing of the Colors parade here attracted a crowd of 3,500 people Monday to Mill Creek Town Center.
The parade, which organizers hope will become an annual event, drew nearly 20 color guard units from throughout the region, as well as Navy Rear Adm. James Symonds as the day’s parade marshal and keynote speaker.
State Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, was among the dignitaries in the reviewing stand applauding parade participants, including the Northwest Navy Band, the color guard from the USS Shoup and Naval Station Everett’s riflemen, who provided a 21-gun salute.
“Mill Creek has really come of age,” Dunshee said. “This is one of the best Memorial Day events I’ve ever seen.”
In the works for more than five months, the parade was organized by a group of Mill Creek people led by Weldon Lee and Chuck Kerr, both retired Army majors.
“We’re here to honor those whose lives were lost in service,” the group’s spokeswoman, Barbara Pattison-Lehning, said. “And to celebrate their contributions.”
A pack of friends sitting on the curb across Main Street from the reviewing stand busily waved U.S. flags during the parade. Sammy Farrell, 10, of Snohomish; Ethan Warren, 11, of Lynnwood; Branden DuPen, 9, and Caleb and Sadie Grode, 9 and 7, of Mill Creek wore big smiles.
“We’re here out of respect for our country,” Ethan said.
Sadie bowed her head as Edwin Carroll, a chaplain from Naval Station Everett, offered an invocation. From the book of Isaiah, Carroll prayed that one day nations would go to war no more and that their swords would be beaten into plowshares.
Leading the parade were about 25 motorcyclists from the Patriot Guard Riders of Everett and Marysville artist Dexter Holmes, who towed a huge rotating cedar stump he carved to remember those who serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
Navy League Cadet Corps members Christian Hunt, 12, of Monroe, and Brenner Rhoades, 12, of Smokey Point, were among those who escorted local officials, military officers and other dignitaries.
Their fellow corps member Mike Middleton, 12, of Everett, walked with the color guard units, which included the Washington National Guard’s honor guard and a joint armed forces flag unit.
“I am honored to be in a parade that honors veterans,” Mike said.
Veterans groups, Daughters of the American Revolution members, Salvation Army officers, Boy Scouts of America, Sea Cadets and Reserve Officer Training Corps groups from Snohomish and Mill Creek were among those who formed a wall of flags before the reviewing stand — the massing of the colors — at noon.
The first massing of the colors ceremony was performed on Armistice Day 1922 in New York. The first Memorial Day, then called Decoration Day, was observed at Arlington National Cemetery after the Civil War.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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