- Plans are materializing for a large-scale military parade happening on Flag Day and President Donald Trump's 79th birthday.
- The Washington, D.C., event would commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.
- While uncommon, there have been several military parades in the United States over the past century.
A military parade featuring legions of American soldiers and military equipment winding through Washington appears to be a go.
The event is slated for June 14 — Flag Day as well as President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday — and will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.
It’s not expected to be a low-key celebration.
According to planning documents obtained by The Associated Press, the proposed event would include “more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 military vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and potentially thousands of civilians.”
Initial estimates for the proposed parade and static displays in the nation’s capital will cost as much as $45 million, NBC News reported, citing Defense Department officials.
Not surprisingly, an event of this nature and expense is prompting mixed responses.
Trump, who had hoped to stage a grand military parade during his first term in office, has said the parade’s price tag would be a bargain.
“Peanuts compared to the value of doing it,” Trump told NBC News.
“We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we’re going to celebrate it.”
U.S. Army spokesman Col. Dave Butler added the Army is excited about the evolving plans for its historic anniversary.
“We want to make it into an event that the entire nation can celebrate with us,” Butler told The Associated Press.
“We want Americans to know their Army and their soldiers. A parade might become part of that, and we think that will be an excellent addition to what we already have planned.”
But others oppose the military parade.
Last month, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., introduced a measure dubbed “Halting All Parades for Presidents’ Yearly Birthday,” that’s designed to prohibit public spending on the proposed June 14 event.
And activists are coordinating a “No Kings” protest on June 14 to defy the event, according to Newsweek.
An expected return to military parades
While military parades are not common in the United States, especially in recent decades, they are not unprecedented over the past century.
The events of World War II prompted a pair of massive parades in New York City.
On June 13, 1942, crowds of people filled the streets of New York City to witness the city’s “At War Parade”.
It was a major display of solidarity for U.S. troops who had entered World War II, according to CNN.
For nearly 11 hours, civilians and service members marched in front of more than 2 million spectators lining the streets.
In 1946, another military parade was held in New York to celebrate the Allied nations’ victory over the coalition of Axis powers in World War II.
More than 10,000 soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division reportedly participated alongside dozens of tanks and other military hardware.
Eisenhower and Kennedy presidential inaugurations
President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 inaugural parade included 22,000 military service members, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
The marchers were joined by a cannon capable of firing a nuclear warhead. It was “the most elaborate inaugural pageant ever held,” according to the Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum.
Four years later, the crowds once again returned to Washington for Eisenhower’s second inauguration — and so did the tanks.
About 750,000 people stood along the 3-mile route as thousands of troops marched around the capital with hardware on display, including the 69-foot-long Redstone — the first ballistic missile successfully fired by the U.S., according to CNN.
President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration took place under the chill of the Cold War. So perhaps it was not surprising to see dozens of missiles paraded for the world — including the Nike Zeus, the Army’s first missile designed to intercept ballistic missiles.
Kennedy waved to marching soldiers and sailors aboard enormous Navy boats being towed down Pennsylvania Avenue. The boats resembled a vessel he commanded during World War II that was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, CNN reported.
Gulf War victory parade
Three decades would pass before the nation staged another large-scale military parade.
In 1991, troops marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., in a victory parade celebrating the end of the Persian Gulf War.
Stealth fighter planes zoomed overhead, tanks and Patriot missiles rolled by, and more than 8,000 battle-clad troops marched past a beaming President George H.W. Bush in a display of the American military might that crushed Iraq in 43 days of combat, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The elaborate celebration, which cost $12 million, drew scattered protests from critics, who said that it glorified militarism. And the turnout for the parade — estimated at 200,000 by U.S. Park Police — was far below predictions of 1 million or more spectators.
However, by the time a fireworks display ended shortly after 10 p.m., the crowd had reportedly grown to 800,000.