{"id":30032,"date":"2012-05-20T07:57:35","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T11:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=30032"},"modified":"2012-05-20T09:49:26","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T13:49:26","slug":"welome-home-parade-in-richmond-va-may-19-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=30032","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Home parade in Richmond, VA May 19, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229574056\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 101 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7240\/7229574056_659aa788a3.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 101\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>OK, let me try this again. Sorry it took so long, but uploading 200 pictures and a 28-minute video takes a while, I guess. <\/p>\n<p>It was indeed a beautiful Spring day in Richmond yesterday as you can see in this video (by the way, my videographer, Shakey McShakes of Shaketown is now looking for work if you&#8217;re interested in hiring someone who can simulate a Zumba Fitness Party during an earthquake). The video is 28 minutes long and covers every bit of the parade.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4_HVqC9gyQ8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Before the parade began, I walked the 1.5 mile route to see if I could root out any protesters, and the only ones I saw were were some Pro-Life zealots who were holding a prayer meeting on one corner. Yeah, I&#8217;m pro-life, too, but I don&#8217;t know what it has to do with a Welcome Home parade. Context, guys.<\/p>\n<p>But here are some of the signs that greeted the troops when they marched;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7230000386\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 031 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7237\/7230000386_51266f0d2e.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 031\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229994980\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 032 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5445\/7229994980_4428e72f7f.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 032\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229988572\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 033 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7097\/7229988572_ee42a49d32.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 033\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229976110\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 035 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7084\/7229976110_1181f919e4.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 035\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The high point, for me, was the Grand Marshall of the parade,  retired Marine Colonel Wesley Fox, a 43-year veteran, resident of Virginia and <a href=\"http:\/\/homeofheroes.com\/moh\/citations_living\/vn_mc_fox.html\">recipient of the Medal of Honor<\/a>. Col. Fox held every enlisted rank except Sergeant Major (which is probably why he was so awesome) before becoming a commissioned officer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229851042\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 049 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8005\/7229851042_4c782b5363.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 049\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course, he was accompanied by Marines;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229841864\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 050 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7081\/7229841864_544336d81c.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 050\"><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>While the Army rode;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229775838\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 058 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5443\/7229775838_bcdc40f856.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 058\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There were several hundred bikers in the parade;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229742108\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 065 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7226\/7229742108_fa38428586.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 065\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The VFW Ladies&#8217; Auxiliary honored the local folks who had fallen;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229690736\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 075 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8164\/7229690736_fc000c1ba2.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 075\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>They had some &#8220;vintage&#8221; vehicles in the parade, too. This one gave me flashbacks of all of the times I had MP jeeps with lights flashing and sirens blaring and coming right at me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/7229623620\/\" title=\"Welcome Home Richmond 090 by jlilyea, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7240\/7229623620_003dc57c87.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Welcome Home Richmond 090\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I could go on and on about the parade, but you&#8217;d probably rather see the 200 photos I took at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thisainthell\/sets\/72157629806188294\/\">My Flickr Photostream<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Afterwards, under the shadow of the World War I Memorial, local organizations set up a Veterans&#8217; Resource Center and displayed what they offered veterans. In fact, if there&#8217;s anyone out there looking for work in Virginia, I can almost guarantee you a job, especially if you&#8217;re a school-trained instructor. One lady in particular was begging me to find her some veterans to work at Fort Lee. So, if you email me, I&#8217;ll send you her contact info.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Concrete Bob for making me go to the parade. We had a great time. And I finally got to see Coby Dillard, a good friend who I haven&#8217;t seen since before the last election. It was a great day.<\/p>\n<p>ADDED: I forgot to mention that I also met Cargo Squid. So I&#8217;m putting more faces to more names these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OK, let me try this again. Sorry it took so long, but uploading 200 pictures and &hellip; <a title=\"Welcome Home parade in Richmond, VA May 19, 2012\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=30032\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Welcome Home parade in Richmond, VA May 19, 2012<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-protestsrallies","category-support-the-troops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}