Manhattan transformed into a sea of red, white and blue to honor the nation’s bravest during the 105th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade on Monday.
The patriotic commemoration — considered to be the largest Veterans Day tribute in the nation, according to parade organizers — featured more than 150 vehicles, 25 floats and 20,000 participants proudly marching up Fifth Avenue from 26th Street to 47th Street.
An emotional Eternal Light Memorial in Madison Square Park preceded the parade’s 12:30 p.m. kickoff, serving as a “powerful reminder of the sacrifices made by our nation’s heroes,” organizers said.
The parade was one of a slew of similar tributes held throughout the country Monday, including a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Ceremony that served as President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ first joint public appearance since the veep’s campaign loss to President-elect Donald Trump.
This year’s New York City event featured the Marine Corps., though “every service branch will be honored and acknowledged,” organizers from the United War Veterans Council said.
The parade’s grand marshal was Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Corps. veteran Dakota Meyer, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer, then a 21-year-old corporal, defied orders and drove into the “killing zone” to rescue Afghan and US troops when he received word that Taliban fighters had pinned them down.
“Through five successive missions over the course of six hours, Meyer helped save the lives of dozens of American and Afghan troops, changing vehicles when his first was too damaged by enemy fire to continue,” organizers said.
“He also found the bodies of four missing men from his unit, and, with the help of Afghan allied soldiers, moved the bodies to a safer area from where they could be extracted.”
The Marine veteran later received the Medal of Honor by then-President Barack Obama in 2011.
“I wasn’t really thinking I could die, it was just a matter of when,” Meyer later said, according to organizers. “I never thought I was going to come out … [but] that’s what Marines do.”
