(Photo Courtesy of Tom Vaughan/FeVa Fotos)
To celebrate our freedom,  the Silver City/Grant County Chamber of Commerce had selected
the WW-II Veterans of Grant County as the Grand Marshals of this year's July 4th Independence Day Parade. There were Veterans riding on the float representing the US Army, US Marine Corps, US Navy and US Army Air Corps. The average age of these Veterans is 90 years old.  Leading the parade were combined Color Guard of the American Legion and Vietnam Veterans of America followed be the Marine Corps League Color Guard, the Grand Marshal Float, The Veterans Service Organizations and Gold Star Mothers.

The original art panels on the float were created by Sabra Humphrey,her daughter, Sabrina Pack, and granddaughter, Serina Pack. Parade coordinator, Ray Davis, made extraordinary efforts to contact these local heroes and many thanks go to him and the family members of the vets for arranging this special reunion. A special thank you goes out to these incredible heroes, our WW-II Veterans!

The Veterans riding in the float in no particular order are:

BILL HARRISON - US NAVY
CAT REDE - US ARMY
DAN MCBRIDE - US ARMY
ROY ANDERSON - US ARMY AIR CORPS
LOU PRUITT - US MARINE CORPS
LEONARD PRITIKIN - US MARINE CORPS
JAMES BAYNE - US ARMY
JACK CUNNINGHAM - US ARMY
ENRIQUE GONZALES - US NAVY
MURRAY RYAN - US ARMY
ARTHUR VEEDER - US ARMY
MARTIN SCHREIBER - US ARMY
GEORGE MOORE - US ARMY
PHILIP ORTEGO - US MARINE  CORPS
GENE LEWIS
GEORGE SANDOVAL - US NAVY
JOSE SALAS- US ARMY AIR CORPS and POW