'Electrifying' Armed Forces Day parade brings crowd back downtown
BREMERTON — Jacob Gessell's return to the Armed Forces Day parade bookended his time in high school. The Olympic High School senior, who plays the tuba in the band, hadn't marched there since he was a freshman.
"It was kind of electrifying really, and great to be out," said Gessell, joined by his sister Abby and friend Koka Lyons, fellow bandmates who lugged their instruments up Pacific Avenue after the parade.
The Trojan band performed "Aztec Fire" and "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire, as the parade returned following two years off due to the pandemic — and 75 years since the event was first held as part of Armed Forces Day.
Throngs of families flocked to the main parts of the route, along Park Avenue, Fourth Street, and Pacific. The parade was shorter than in years past but possessed all of the pomp and circumstance, including Navy and civic leaders riding in fancy hot rods, quirky floats and yes, plenty of high school bands.
On the south side of Fourth Street at Park Avenue, three generations of Christine Daugherty's family watched motorcycle-riding veterans rev their engines. The Central Kitsap High School class of 1981 graduate has missed few Armed Forces Day parades since. She has a son who was a Navy submariner and a daughter that was a nurse in the Army.
"We're sharing it forward with the grandchildren," she said, noting she brought kids 4, 5, 7 and 8 years old.
On the east side of Pacific Avenue near Dr. ML King Way, David Stewart fired up a grill to make hot dogs topped with grilled onions as marching bands rumbled by.
"We definitely missed this parade," said Stewart, director of New Day Ministry, a nonprofit that serves the homeless and vulnerable from a building next to his grill. "We got beautiful weather today and a great crowd. Everybody's loving it."
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Armed Forces Day parade in downtown Bremerton 75 years
