Hundreds of people turned out in downtown Roanoke Saturday for the annual Veterans Day Parade. Three were the traditional floats, bands, dignitaries, and marching units.
Garland Linkous 9th District Commander of the American Legion in Roanoke was in the parade. He says of the tradition of having a Veterans Day Parade, “Oh, it’s wonderful. It thanks the people back for our service and time. I always like to hear them say, ‘Thank you for your service.’ Of course, our call back is, ‘Thank you for providing our service’.”
Linkous served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and ended up in the Army National Guard before retiring in 2000. He played trumpet in the military band and also used to be a recruiter.
Linkous says it depends on what year it is whether young people today are still interested in joining the military. “It goes from season to season. Until the conflict we’re in now, we had no problem (recruiting people). Now, the kids say, ‘Well, I don’t want to go in and leave my family and my job to go over to Iraq’, so it’s tough right now.”
