LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Veterans Day is a day where we honor, remember, and celebrate veterans and their families, and that's also when the Veterans Day parade returns to downtown Louisville.
The parade will take place on Saturday, Nov. 11.
Captain Marj Graves, a retired Vietnam veteran, joined Wayne Hettinger -- the man behind Thunder Over Louisville -- on WDRB Mornings Thursday for a preview.
Cpt. Graves will serve as the Grand Marshal this year, which will be the first time a woman has served in that role. She was inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame in September 2018, paying tribute to the 75th Anniversary of the signing of the Women’s Armed Forces Integration Act.
Graves said she is "honored and humbled" to serve as the Grand Marshal for this year's parade, "not only for veterans period, because we all served, and we all served together. But especially for female members. If I'm not wrong, I think I'm the first female veteran from Kentucky to be the Grand Marshal so that makes me happy and it makes a lot of ladies out there happy too."
Cpt. Graves was a nurse during the Vietnam War, and volunteered to go to Vietnam after she had been on active duty for four years in the Army Nurse Corp.
"I volunteered to go to Vietnam," Graves said, becoming one of between 7,000 and 10,000 nurses to serve there.
"And I just had to go," Graves said. "I had that Florence Nightingale attitude that I could go over there and stop the war -- where that came from, I don't know. But I also knew that I had to get my hands on our U.S. military guys that were injured or sick."
Pictured: this undated image shows U.S. Army Cpt. Marj Graves (retired) when she served as a nurse during the Vietnam War. Graves is the Grand Marshal of the Veterans Day Parade in downtown Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 11, 2023.
Joining the military "was one of the best decisions of my life," Graves said.
This year's event is much more than the traditional parade which will take place in downtown Louisville. The day will begin at 9 a.m. with a Touring Parade (Rendezvous). Vehicles will assemble at three primary locations: Eastern High School in Middletown proceeding to Shelbyville Road; UAW 862 from Fern Valley to Preston, to Eastern Parkway, and Kilroy from Southern Indiana.
The multiple convoys will simultaneously travel to downtown Louisville and meet up at 7th and Jefferson. FREE parking will be available at all metered spots during the event.
The traditional parade then begins at noon, traveling east on Jefferson Street from 7th Street, passing the review stand, and ending at 3rd Street. The final, new piece of the celebration will feature a static display with an interactive meet-and-greet for the public.
The Boy Scouts of America will also be participating, with troops in the local Lincoln Heritage lining the route to create a "Corridor of Flags."
The event will also include a fly over, massing of colors, TAPS, and a 21-gun salute.
WDRB Media is a proud sponsor of Louisville's Veterans Day parade.
For more information visit: www.kyvetparade.com.
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