The City of Columbia held its 28th annual Veterans Day parade and ceremony Sunday. Events started with a parade down Eighth Street from the columns and ended at the Boone County Courthouse.
Patriotic songs were played by the Missouri Military Academy band and the Boone County Fire Protection District Pipes and Drums during both the parade and the ceremony. The parade also included the local ROTC.
Air Force ROTC Cadet Patrick Stark was the emcee for the event at the courthouse. The featured speaker was retired Air Force Colonel Bill Boston.
“No one has a greater appreciation for peace than a person who has been in combat,” Boston said. “General Douglas MacArthur said, ‘The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.’”
Boston spoke of the history of Veterans Day, and the reverence he holds for those who have served their country.
“The holiday this weekend offers an opportunity to assess our attitudes as individuals and as a nation towards the men and women who have served in our military,” Boston said. “In a quote attributed to President John F. Kennedy, he said, ‘You’ll know the character of a nation by the way it treats its veterans.’”
World War II veteran and Columbia resident Richard Mull was attending partly because his grandson is now in the Missouri ROTC. He said it was his first time attending Columbia’s Veterans Day ceremony.
“It was very good and very appropriate to have,” Mull said. “Comments about the veterans and how they performed and what they gave up, that was real important.”