Several hundred veterans, many dressed in camouflage, walked alongside military vehicles, marching bands and even the Budweiser Clydesdales. People in the crowd held signs reading “Welcome Home” and “God Bless Our Troops,” and fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted three huge American flags along the route.

“It’s not necessarily overdue. It’s just the right thing,” said Maj. Rich Radford, who became a symbol of the event thanks to a photo of his young daughter taking his hand while welcoming him home from his second tour in Iraq in 2010.

Since the war ended, there has been little fanfare for returning veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases – no ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations – so two friends from St. Louis decided to change that.

They sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route in a grass-roots effort that raised about $35,000. More than half came from Anheuser-Busch and the Mayflower moving company, which both have St. Louis ties.

12/14/2011 - First lady Michelle Obama, center right, and President Barack Obama, center left, applaud U.S. Service members and their families at Pope Field at Fort Bragg, N.C., Dec. 14, 2011, during a speech about the end of the war in Iraq and military families' sacrifices. (DoD photo by Sgt. Victor Ayala, U.S. Army/Released)	U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta addresses sailors stationed aboard the USS Blue Ridge on Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Oct. 26, 2011. DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey Biography | Speeches | Travels | Message
12/15/2011 - A U.S. Marine with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and assigned to the dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) walks with children during a community relation’s event at the Help the Cambodian Children Goodwill Center in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Dec. 14, 2011. The Pearl Harbor and the embarked Marines were operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility as part of the Makin Island Ready Group. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dominique Pineiro, U.S. Navy/Released)

 

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