CAMARILLO : Parade to Welcome Gulf Troops Home

Local veterans of the war with Iraq will take to the streets of Camarillo on Saturday in one of the area’s first homecoming parades.

Several hundred participants are expected, including more than 200 county-based troops, organizer Sandi Bush said.

“It is a hometown parade welcoming all the troops back from Desert Shield and Desert Storm,” Bush said.

Fifteen of the 90 Camarillo residents who served in the Persian Gulf will be among the group, Bush said. The others, who have not yet returned, will be represented by their families, she said.

The parade, featuring American flags and “Welcome Home” signs, will start at 1 p.m. at Arneill Road and Daily Drive, head north to Ponderosa Drive and end at City Hall on Carmen Drive and Constitution Park.

A C-130 Hercules transport plane from the Channel Islands Air National Guard base will fly overhead as a color guard of the county Vietnam Veterans Assn. leads the mile-long procession.

At 2:30 p.m., marchers will gather in Constitution Park for patriotic music and speeches from four representatives of the local military bases. Two F-14 Tomcats and two F-18 Hornets are scheduled to fly overhead at that time.

Troops from the Channel Islands Air National Guard base, the Point Mugu Naval Air Station and the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme are expected to participate in the parade. Marching alongside the veterans will be youth groups, county residents, local officials and American Legion members.