Gulf Troops Welcomed With Hollywood Flair : Parade: Hundreds of thousands watch them march in festive display. Veterans of all conflicts are honored.

With warplanes roaring across a blue sky, tanks rolling down Sunset Boulevard and anti-war activists waging a staunch protest, Los Angeles on Sunday hosted a homecoming parade for troops returning from victory in the Persian Gulf War with the showy flair that only Hollywood could provide.

A huge audience, estimated between 500,000 and 1 million, lined the 3.2-mile Hollywood route, enthusiastically cheering and applauding more than 5,000 Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen who had returned from victory over Iraq.

As troop formations, tanks and floats trundled westward along Sunset, an array of modern and vintage warplanes streaked eastward over the parade route, then banked north toward the Hollywood sign, which was festooned with a yellow bow for the occasion.

The spectacle featured F-117A Stealth fighters, World War II era bombers and World War I biplanes flying overhead as marching bands belted out such tunes as “Over There” and “The Marines’ Hymn.” Celebrities ranging from Bob Hope to Roseanne Barr to Latino rap star Gerardo waved happily to the crowd.

In their invasion of Hollywood, most of the troops exhibited stone-faced military discipline.

But the facade masked some good feelings.

“I grew up here and I never expected something like this,” said airman and Hollywood native Frank Arcila. “We never expected all this support.”

Big cheers also greeted veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam who marched in the parade. The response was especially sweet for Vietnam veterans, who had come home not to fanfare but to a nation torn by the controversial war.

“Us, we didn’t get this,” said Kurt Phillips. Disabled in a non-service accident, Phillips sat in a wheelchair alongside other patients from a Veterans Administration hospital. “I’ve more or less buried the hatchet and I’m out here to support these guys. . . . It’s a welcome home for me and all the other Vietnam vets too.”

Anna Kaser, an 87-year-old resident of a VA nursing home, said she was grateful that, unlike in previous wars, so many American troops had survived to march in a parade.

“It’s wonderful. I’m so glad so many of our boys came home,” said Kaser, a WAC in World War II. “I have a son in the Army so I know what it’s like.”

Kaser wore a hat emblazoned “USA” and many other parade-goers made fashion statements in red, white and blue. Yellow ribbons like those worn by Maria Hearn of Sierra Madre also were popular. Hearn said she drove an hour to attend the parade because “we love our guys that went over there.”

Along the parade route, retired Col. Lewis Millett walked in front of a float loaded with highly decorated veterans of past wars. He pointed to old soldiers and called out their commendations and battles, inspiring roars of approval from the crowd. At one point, his audience launched into a chant of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Big hoorays greeted not only the troops, but also such weaponry as an M-1 Abrams tank, a Bradley fighting vehicle, an F-16 and a Patriot missile. Show biz celebrities as dignified as Jimmy Stewart, the parade’s honorary co-chairman with Hope, and as gaudy as comedian Rip Taylor, who wore glittery Old Glory garb, were applauded as they rode by in vintage autos. Signs on the cars pointed out that many of the celebrities were themselves military veterans.

About the only thing that did not get cheered, it seemed, was a tram loaded with local politicians.

A few words from the sponsors were also featured in the parade. A float honoring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was sponsored by a new soft drink called Combat Cooler that comes in desert camouflage can. Kodak’s float carried the newly crowned “Miss Universe.” When the warplanes finished their show, airplanes hauled banners over the route with such messages as “Welcome Home Troops from Downey Toyota” and “Welcome Home Troops--Pick-Your-Part Auto Wrecking.”

The parade, staged by the city and Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, opened with a parachute team descending with the flags of each branch of the armed forces--Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. The final sky diver brought down a huge Old Glory.

Accurate crowd counts were an impossibility. Some news reports estimated the crowd, perhaps expansively, at more than 1 million. “I’ve heard anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million,” said police Sgt. Phil Timgirides at the Los Angeles Police Department’s command post.

More than 750 police and traffic officers were assigned to the route, a loop that traveled west from Sunset and Van Ness Avenue, then north on Highland Avenue, east on Hollywood Boulevard and south on Bronson Avenue.

Police reported the arrests of 11 people by 7:30 p.m., including six anti-war activists who allegedly attempted to disrupt the parade. In one incident, three protesters carried an American flag bearing an anti-war slogan in front of a military vehicle. The flag was grabbed by a soldier and given to police to be held as evidence, a police spokesman said. Four people were arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness and one on suspicion of battery.

Although a protester said he dodged a flying beer bottle, anti-war activists and other parade-goers tended to avoid each other. Anti-war sentiment found a haven at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, where about 200 protesters gathered, many wearing the black of mourning. A few mocked the troops with a Nazi salute while many others raised two fingers in the sign of peace, not the “V” for victory.

When a contingent of Vietnam veterans marched past Blessed Sacrament, there was cheering on one side of the street and silence from the protesters. Some of the veterans and protesters exchanged obscene gestures while others exchanged peace signs.

A war in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqi troops were killed along with untold numbers of civilians is no cause for celebration, protesters said. “I think it’s ironic that while the Soviet Union is scaling back its military parades, we’re just beginning ours,” said Robert A. Fambrini, the church’s pastor. “I think all this military hardware is pure propaganda and baloney. It has no place in welcoming home troops.”

As the Hollywood parade proceeded, other anti-war activists staged an alternative parade in Pasadena. About 500 activists marched and held a candlelight vigil, carrying a coffin.

Before the Hollywood parade started, still another anti-war group made a last-ditch attempt to join the march, only to be rebuffed by officials.

“I think it’s an obscene scene,” said one of the group, Jim Harrington, a 70-year-old member of Veterans for Peace who fought in World War II. “This war was the equivalent of Mike Tyson pushing a drunk off a bar stool. It was a high-tech slaughter.”

Hours before the Hollywood parade began, the event gave the movie capital the look of a city newly liberated by an invading army. Crowds started gathering at noon for the 4 p.m. event. Street corners on Sunset often frequented by prostitutes were instead dominated by clusters of Marines in full desert combat regalia, rifles slung on their shoulders. Old Glories and yellow ribbons where everywhere.

Inside a red, white and blue reception area on the KTLA compound at Sunset and Van Ness, parade officials and sponsors mingled with veterans and troops around an ice sculpture of an American eagle. Veterans of World War I and Medal of Honor recipients chatted with young, crew-cut Marines who could no longer be described as green recruits.

Anonymous telephone threats were a concern for police and parade officials. KTLA was roped off for several hours Sunday morning because of a bomb threat, a security guard said.

Anti-war activists stenciled peace signs and slogans outside the VIP entrance to KTLA. Most were painted over before the start of the event.

Parade producer Johnny Grant said there was at least one military impostor. Grant quoted the man as saying, “I’m going to march with the 82nd Airborne.”

“I knew the 82nd wasn’t marching today--and his uniform was too big,” Grant said.

Police sent the man away with a reprimand.

Shirt maker Joe Kaufenberg, a financial sponsor of the parade, said his company has sold more than 200,000 T-shirts since the deployment of American troops last August, donating $1 for each shirt to buy radios for the troops.

Kaufenberg said his own homecoming from the Korean War helped inspire his support of the parade. “When I came home, they claimed Korea was never a war and we never won it. When I got home it was tough getting a job,” he said. “We want to make sure our kids don’t get the same treatment we did.”

A re-enlistment ceremony was staged before the parade for three Army reservists who served in the war. Actor Jimmy Stewart, who served as a bomber pilot in World War II and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the reserves, performed the ceremony.

“I’m excited. I’m still on cloud nine,” said Sgt. Frank Bodeman of Alhambra, who went into Kuwait and Iraq with a grave registration detail that buried the Iraqi dead. “Not everyone has Jimmy Stewart’s signature on their reenlistment contract.”

Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. forces in Vietnam, was among the dignitaries in the reception room. “Any time I can be with the troops it’s an exhilarating experience,” he said. “There’s lots of camaraderie.”

The controversial general, blamed by some for deepening the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, received rousing hoorays along with other Vietnam veterans.

Just before the parade’s start, Army Pvt. Brian Gadison stood alongside a Patriot missile launcher and a replica of the missile. “It’s the most expensive float in the parade,” he quipped.

Meanwhile, not far from a cluster of anti-war activists, a contingent of soldiers from Ft. Irwin held down a oversized helium-filled replica of an M-1 Abrams tank.

“All this hype, I love it,” said Army Pvt. John Rupe of Palmdale.

Then Rupe could not help but utter the Desert Storm battle cry.

“It’s good to go!”

Staff writer Laurie Becklund contributed to this story.