Remember Armed Forces Day?

[Mainsail]

It's a thing.

Bremerton WA has one of the longest running celebrations for Armed Forces Day, this year being the 77th.

I was scheduled to drive the milsurp M1165 and placed in the middle of the pack of 150 participants. Last night the event organizer called me and asked if I would mind driving one of the VIPs, the SWFPAC Sailor of the Year. I said yes, happy to help. So I was assigned a spot in Section A.

She still wanted me to appear in my assigned position in Section C as well so as not to mess up the grandstand announcer's script.

Some Corvette club carried the admirals and commanders, I fell in behind them, and behind me was a SWFPAC Marine Security group in a fully armored HMMWV and a Bearcat.

So as soon as I hit parade end I dropped my rider off and raced through the streets of Bremerton to get back to the staging area and find my other spot. Just made it too, as they were just starting to roll as I arrived. On my way in I passed some other privately owned milsurp trucks but didn't have time to stop and admire them.

It was overcast and misted a few times, but the rain held off until the end.

A couple of pictures I took prior to the start, back in the staging area.

 

[Rustyt1953]

My dad was a member of the VFW's 40 & 8.

In local parades they would use a tractor to pull a rubber tired WWI box car and he and other vets inside would throw candy to the kids.

 

[Kinman]

Never Forget May 18, 1980...Mt. St. Helens blew her top off. Our son was six months old, I was planting a garden in the old dog run, peppers, eggplant, squash, no root crops. I saw the very dark weather coming and thought I was going to get a beating, got out some heavy Visqueen I had around to cover my tender starts and went in the house to tell my wife a bad storm was coming. We turned on the news to see if there was any notification and then learned about the volcano. It blew earlier in the morning, it took hours for the ash to arrive, town went dark. We worried about the kid and holed up for a couple days. Friends of mine had gone out to Fairchild AFB for the usual festivities, had a tough go driving home in the ash and darkness.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Mount St. Helens erupted on March 27.