Hundreds observe Veterans Day in downtown Butler
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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The annual Butler Veterans Day Parade on Main Street was held on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
The crowd gathered on Butler’s Main Street on Monday morning, Nov. 11, for the city’s annual Veterans Day Parade was anticipated by local veterans who participate in the holiday’s commemoration, but it was impressive to out-of-towners.
Carly Greene and her son, Bill Pendergraft, came from Allegheny County to commemorate the holiday and assist the local Butler Marine Corps League with the ceremony, finding the sidewalks overflowing with people recognizing local military personnel.
“This city embraces it,” said Greene, a veteran and member of the Allegheny Valley Marine Corps League. “The crowds are always out no matter what. I feel like it’s a very patriotic town.”
Dozens of entries paraded down Main Street starting just before 11 a.m. Monday. Several of them were organizations that provide service to the community or specifically veterans in the area.
For Don Paserba, of the Bantam Marine Corps League, the holiday is a chance for veterans to pay tribute to one another, although he would like to see more people enlist in the service.
“It’s an honor to do this, a privilege really,” Paserba said. “But we’re running out of people.”
The sight of hundreds of people lining the sidewalks was encouraging to Paserba, as was the group of ROTC students marching in the parade in lines that were about six people wide.
Also encouraging to him were the three generations of Marine Corps members represented in the Greene family.
Carly Greene performed the 21-gun salute alongside her father, Don Greene, another Marine Corps veteran, and her son Pendergraft, who is currently enlisted in the Marines, assisted in the ceremony as well. The family has several people in the military, marking more than 60 years of experience, according to Carly Greene.
“The term is a dynasty of Marines,” Pendergraft said with a laugh. “There’s six of us in total.”
Following the recognition of several veterans organizations, from VA Butler Healthcare to the Disabled America Veterans organization, the parade stopped for the salute, and to recognize the Veteran of the Year, Gary Neely, who also spoke.
Neely recapped the history of Veterans Day, saying that it began as Armistice Day 105 years ago, when “the guns fell silent,” ending World War I. Neely said Veterans Day is a day to remember everyone who served in the military, including those who died in conflict a hundred years ago.
“Over 16 million men had died in those muddy trenches; 53,000 were American soldiers,” Neely said of World War I. “Scarcely a town, village or family went untouched by this travesty. Fathers, sons and husbands were never coming home again.”
Carly Greene said that she still sees people interested in paying tribute to veterans, as demonstrated by the hundreds of people who did so Monday in Butler. While she is hoping more people enlist in the service, she was particularly hopeful that they try for the Marine Corps.
“We need more Marines,” she said. “We even have people who are volunteers who just want to be a part of it.”
