Miami

Miami Beach Celebrates Veterans Day With Parade

Miami Beach celebrated our service men and women with a Veterans Day parade and picnic Wednesday.

"I'm glad they're realizing veterans again. When I came home they didn't nobody said anything. It was a different world back then, it was 65 years ago," Korean War veteran Larry Borsari said.

"A lot of people often bypass veterans and it's great to know that they're getting what they deserve," ROTC cadet Suzette Sevilla said.

Veterans young and old came out to be recognized for their service. The men and women who gave so much for the red, white and blue were praised during a wreath laying ceremony and some vets made an entrance worth saluting, parachuting from 2,000 feet right onto a field.

"I couldn't pick any other thing that I would much rather be doing than what I just did today honoring our veterans," said Mike Elliott, who spent 26 years in the military and 11 years as a Golden Knight. "It's a great day for our veterans of the past, our veterans for our future. Thank you for what you've done for this great country, for our freedom. My hat's off to you and we salute you all."

NBC 6's Willard Shepard, an Air Force veteran, was this year's grand marshall. He stressed how South Florida is one of the top place where service men and women come off of active duty.

"We have a higher percentage of veterans living in our communities than pretty much anywhere in the country and because of that we gotta be more attentive to what happens in terms of the kind of needs that they have," Shepard said.

"I think we should at least recognize them because they put their lives on the line even if they didn't get killed out there they still went through the horror of war," Sevilla said.

"They went out and served their country. Always. A lot of good men didn't come home," Borsari said.

There were clearly a lot of festivities and fun all at the Veteran's Day picnic but the Humvees serve as a reminder of all the sacrifices the veterans have given and that freedom isn't free.

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