KANSAS CITY, Mo — Some folks in Kansas City want to throw a parade in honor of the veterans who fought in the Iraq war. But right now that parade could be in jeopardy unless they can get more community support.
They’re calling it the Welcome Home Heroes parade. The organizers say now that all the troops have pulled out of Iraq, it’s time to honor their service and their sacrifice. The parade would end at Washington Square Park near Crown Center, and would feature an expo with services that support veterans. But in order to pull this off, the organizers say need a lot more support themselves.
The KC parade organizers got the idea after seeing the huge outpouring of support at the St Louis parade in January honoring Iraq War Veterans. Thousands of people lined the streets and Iraq veteran Ted Houdek says that touched him.
“It gives you a good feeling,” he says, ” and I assume there are people who want to thank a veteran and don’t know how to do that, so this might give them an opportunity to say ‘thanks we appreciate what you did.'”
Houdek went to Iraq in January 2007 as part of the surge, and saw a lot of combat while he was there. But he was also there as things turned around, and he was part of the team that restored the criminal court system. He says now that the war is over, it’s time to thank people like him who made so many sacrifices.
“Some people don’t know that we don’t have troops in Iraq anymore,” Houdek says, “and so this is a good way to say listen, this war lasted longer than Korea longer than second World War, it’s one of the longest wars we had and it’s finally over and our men and women have come home.”
The defense department has been reluctant to support the idea of a large parade because troops are still fighting in Afghanistan. Houdek says those troops still need support and will get their own celebration soon enough but he says the Iraq veterans can’t be ignored.
The organizers would like to have the Welcome Home Heroes parade on May 19th, Armed Services Day – but so far they’ve been struggling to come up with enough sponsors and supporters and volunteers to make it happen.
If you want to find out how to help, head to their website here.
