Torrance honors military during annual parade on Armed Forces Day – Daily Breeze

Fashionable jets and historic fighter planes flew over Torrance. Tanks, Humvees and different navy tools rolled via Torrance Boulevard in entrance of hundreds of spectators.

And a gaggle of younger adults raised their rights palms and took the oath of enlistment.

It was all a part of this weekend’s 62nd annual Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade and Celebration. The parade occurred on Saturday afternoon, Might 18 — on Armed Forces Day — and as soon as once more featured native dignitaries and Armed Forces leaders driving in flag-festooned basic automobiles. There have been additionally greater than 40 entries of bands, battalions, tanks and horse models.

“It’s the largest occasion of the 12 months,” stated Mayor George Chen, greeting residents picnicking on the sidewalk after the parade. “That is to honor our navy and to inform them we’re grateful for his or her service. We are going to preserve this going.”

Torrance additionally makes use of the parade to yearly spotlight one department of the navy. This 12 months, for the primary time, it was the House Pressure’s flip.

“That house is important holds true for the typical American,” stated parade announcer and ABC Information nationwide information correspondent Emmett Miller. “House capabilities, I’m positive you’re all conscious of this, are woven into the very material of recent life.”

As such, the grand marshal for the parade was Lt.Gen. Philip A. Garrant, commander of House Programs Command, which is headquartered at Los Angeles Air Pressure Base, in El Segundo.

For the House Pressure to take heart stage was thrilling, stated Michiko Riley, spokesperson for House Programs Command.

“With our fifth anniversary arising in December, and our department marking 70 years because the founding of the Western Improvement Division in Inglewood,” Riley stated, “simply exhibits we’ve got a protracted historical past right here,.”

The Western Improvement Division was began in Inglewood through the Chilly Battle to analysis and develop a weapons system. The Military’s World Battle II-era Ordnance-California Institute of Know-how staff in Pasadena can also be thought-about a part of the House Pressure’s historical past.

The honorary grand marshal was additionally house associated: Col. Michael S. Hopkins, a NASA astronaut who has visited the Worldwide House Station, had that title.

“It’s my first time right here in Torrance,” he stated, “and I really like the truth that for 62 years now, Torrance is honoring those that have served within the navy now, honoring those that have served within the navy previously and provoking those that will serve sooner or later. It’s only a fantastic occasion.”

Torrance’s weekend of celebrating the navy additionally consists of an expo exterior the Del Amo Trend Heart, which started Friday and runs via Sunday, and a 5K that previous the parade on Saturday morning.

The 5K for Freedom, in tribute to conflict hero and Olympian Louis Zamperini, drew the most important variety of individuals because it began six years in the past, stated Donna Duperron, president and CEO of the Torrance Space Chamber of Commerce. Greater than 200 navy members and 976 neighborhood members signed up for the run.

5 veterans had been honored at this 12 months’s occasion, together with, Rep.Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, former Torrance Mayors Frank Scotto and Pat Furey, and Louis Espinal and Capt. Katelin Robinson.

“The Armed Forces Parade and 5K for Freedom is a chance for our neighborhood to come back collectively to pay tribute to veterans and people serving within the navy,” Duperron stated. “The unity that these two occasions convey to our neighborhood is so particular.”

Nevertheless it’s the parade that’s the spotlight of the weekend.

The Torrance procession is the nation’s longest-running municpal parade honoring the navy, based on Torrance, and one of many few within the nation the Division of Protection sanctions to honor the navy. And Torrance doesn’t simply honor lively service members. Saturday’s parade featured Vietnam Battle veterans and veterans of the previous Republic of Vietnam — the U.S.’s allies throughout that battle — Civil Battle reenactors and the Sons of the American Revolution.

And itt even honored those that have but to formally don a uniform.

Torrance continued its custom of yearly internet hosting a mass enlistment for younger individuals throughout a parade. On Saturday, about two dozen individuals stopped in entrance of the grandstands. They raised their proper palms and, with Garrant main them, stated the oath of enlistment.

“At a time when our nation has been supporting Democracy throughout the globe, it’s particularly becoming to acknowledge the sacrifices these younger women and men earlier than you’re prepared to make,” Miller stated. “Really the cream of the crop of our society.”

Whereas no official quantity has been launched, organizers estimated a much bigger crowd than the 60,000 that lined final 12 months’s parade route, based on Sgt. Ron Wage of the Torrance Police Division.

Amongst these had been Emer Santos and his household. They had been visiting his cousin in Redondo Seaside and occurred upon the navy show on the Del Amo Trend Heart — so that they determined to return for the parade.

Santos pointed to a girl holding an indication that learn, “Due to you, I reside free. Thanks!” His 3-year-old son beloved trying on the World Battle II warbirds and Coast Guard helicopters buzzing overhead. The household discovered a spot on Torrance Boulevard close to the grandstands, the place individuals set EZ-Ups, picnic blankets, and garden chairs; there was even a bounce home that lined entrance yards.

“I used to be amazed we nonetheless had some World Battle II veterans with us, in order that was a shock,” Santos stated. “I favored the large tanks and seeing all of the women and men in uniforms. I joked they make me need to rise up straight. However this all does make you assume that these are our troopers and our nation and that feels good.”

Employees author Chris Haire contributed to this report.

Editor’s be aware: Lt.Gen. Philip A. Garrant was the grand marshal for the Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade. Due to a reporting error, Garrant’s identify was misspelled in a earlier model of this story.