Gulf War Veterans to Take Center Stage in Festivities

The South Bay will welcome home its Desert Storm veterans this weekend with processions, pompons, Patriot missiles and pomp.

Brenette Francois has 20 tickets to Inglewood’s homecoming bash at Hollywood Park racetrack Saturday so a whole troop of relatives can see her son receive a commendation. Joseph Francois of the Army is one of about 90 such Desert Storm honorees from Inglewood.

“I am so proud of my son,” Francois said. “You give a lot when you fight for your country. It’s a good feeling when we can give something back.”

Later in the day, there will be more thanks and flag waving at Torrance’s annual Armed Forces Day Parade. Desert Storm veterans Robert Chacon, Steven Klasson, Michael Meyers and Howard Schneider of Torrance will be honored.

Torrance’s parade, which is to begin at 1 p.m., has drawn tens of thousands of patriotic revelers for the last 31 years, but organizers expect Desert Storm euphoria to push this year’s attendance over the 100,000 mark for the first time.

As warplanes pass overhead, drill teams, veterans groups, tanks, Patriot missile launchers, personnel carriers and the four Torrance Desert Storm veterans will make their way along the mile-long parade route: Torrance Boulevard between Madrid and Madrona avenues.

And expect flag waving galore from spectators who receive the thousands of miniature American flags that will be given away.

“The parade sends a chill up your spine,” said Councilman Bill Applegate, an Air Force veteran. “You get goose bumps. This is the real thing. It’s exciting. It doesn’t get any better.”

Applegate said Torrance persisted with its parade when the Vietnam War tarnished the military’s image. Now it has an opportunity to take advantage of pride in the military that follows the Gulf War, he said.

“It wasn’t always popular to have an Armed Forces Day Parade in the ‘60s,” said Applegate, who is organizing the parade with Police Capt. Larry Robinson. “But we kept it up. We wanted to say thanks on this one day to the men and women in uniform for everything they do all year long.”

The grand marshal will be Air Force Gen. George Lee Butler, who is commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command in Omaha. Another special guest will be Chief Master Sgt. Gary R. Pfingston, the Air Force’s highest-ranking noncommissioned officer and a 1958 graduate of Torrance High School.

Inglewood has handed out 80,000 free passes for its 11:30 a.m. celebration at Hollywood Park, two to every household in the city. In a graduation-like ceremony headed by Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Johnny J. Hobbs, each of Inglewood’s 90 or so Desert Storm veterans will be called to the stage. Many are not back home yet and will have family members accept their awards.

The city will pass out 5,000 red, white and blue pompons, which viewers in the grandstands, with the help of the Laker Girls, will use to form a giant “I” for Inglewood. Veterans from armed conflicts stretching back to World War I will also be honored. Leading the “Pledge of Allegiance” will be Inglewood resident Lynn Gross, a Pearl Harbor survivor.

“These people made some very extreme sacrifices,” said Truman Jacques, Inglewood’s director of community affairs. “. . . We want to tell them we care.”