Warsaw’s Veterans Day celebration going strong at 103

You can learn a lot about a town by noticing how it introduces itself to visitors, and those entering Warsaw are met with signage proudly proclaiming the town to be “Home of the Oldest, Consecutive Veterans Celebration in America.” This year, that celebration will take place Nov. 3 and 4.

Veterans Day is a big deal in Warsaw, and before going any further, it might be a good idea to clearly state exactly what the day is all about. “Veterans Day honors all of those who have served the country in war or peace — dead or alive — although it’s largely intended to thank living veterans for their sacrifices,” according to the website of the U.S. Department of Defense. The official date of the holiday is always Nov. 1.

Warsaw held its first Veterans Day Parade Nov. 11, 1921, and it’s been held every year since then, even during 2020, when almost everything else was shut down due to Covid. “We said we were going to have it if we only had one vehicle in the parade,” says parade committee member David Benton, himself a veteran with over 26 years in the Air Force.

Fellow committee member Del Foster confirms that the parade went on much as usual that year, with the only real difference being that all involved wore masks.

So, when Warsaw boasts that this will be the 103rd consecutive year of the parade, the town can do so without putting an asterisk by that number.

Even prior to powering through the Covid year, the Warsaw parade had already received widespread recognition for its longevity, being adopted by North Carolina’s General Assembly in 2016 as the official Veterans Day Parade of the state.

This year’s festivities will begin Friday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m., across from Warsaw United Methodist Church, with a flag retirement ceremony, by the Boy Scouts of America. This ceremony is a fairly recent addition, having been introduced to the celebration in 2020.

On Saturday, Nov. 4, a number of activities are planned: a Pancake Breakfast at Warsaw Baptist Church from 7 to 9 a.m.; a Memorial Service sponsored by the VFW at 10 a.m., behind the parade reviewing stand on Railroad Street; and an annual barbecue fundraiser by the Fire Department, beginning at noon. Many food and craft vendors will be on hand throughout the day, and the Duplin County Veterans Museum (at 119 E. Hill St.) will be open for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Of course, the headlining event of the day is the parade, which begins at 11 a.m. with members of the Special Forces parachuting in and a flyover by F15s. The parade typically has over 100 entries, Foster notes, and lasts at least an hour. The 1.5-mile route is the same as last year, beginning at Front and Pollock Streets, and proceeding onto Hill, Railroad, College and Pine Streets.

Entries in the parade include: antique farm equipment, antique cars and trucks, muscle cars, motorcycles, Fire Department equipment, dance teams, local pageant queens and princesses, and five Shrine units (go-carts, mini-gigs, dancing clowns, etc.).

There will also be participation from various branches of the U.S. military, although, says Benton, “That’s one of the things that’s decreased in participation over the years. Used to, when I was a kid, most of the parade was military equipment.” Other commitments by military personnel have largely been responsible for the decrease, he explains.

“We do have an excellent response from the JROTC,” says Warsaw Chamber of Commerce manager Carolyn Quinn, referring to the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. She adds that JROTC from the following schools will be represented in the parade: East Duplin, James Kenan, Lakewood, Tarheel Challenge, Union, and Wallace-Rose Hill.

In addition to being in the parade, students from Tarheel Challenge, out of Salemburg, will also be assisting with traffic management, according to Foster.

One thing Quinn advises people not to count on during the parade is candy being tossed to onlookers. While this is popular with children, she cites safety concerns as the reason for discouraging it. Besides, she notes, just a few days before the parade, on October 31, Halloween, a Trunk or Treat is being held on Front Street, hosted by the Town of Warsaw, the Fire Department, the Police Department, the Chamber of Commerce, and various churches, so kids will have an opportunity to get their fill of candy there.

Plus, there will be numerous food vendors set up in town, bringing plenty of other opportunities for grabbing something sweet to eat.

As with any celebration that has been around over 100 years, this one has undergone —and continues to undergo — changes. As mentioned by Benton, the parade no longer has as strong a military presence. And Quinn notes another type of parade participant that has dropped off: homemade floats. She explains that prizes are given out for first, second and third place in the float category to try to encourage more civic and nonprofit organizations to participate, and it’s something she would like to see pick back up in the future. She goes on to note that sometimes children ride in the parade on trailers, and as long as the trailers are decorated, they are counted as floats.

As for her favorite part of the festivities, she says, “I look forward to the fun that people have, the smiles on people’s faces, eating fair food, and seeing people we haven’t seen since last year.”

In recent years, organizers of the celebration have worked to ensure that there’s plenty for children to enjoy, thus creating a Kids’ Zone, complete with inflatables.

And last year’s festivities featured a special unveiling of a mural at the corner of College St. and Front St., showing scenes (and actual townspeople) from the town’s previous Veterans Day parades. The mural was painted by Connie Wilkerson-Arp and stands as a constant tribute to veterans.

When asked why the Warsaw celebration has remained so popular over the years (Quinn estimates that 8,000 to 10,000 people will attend this year), Benton replies, “We’re centrally located to a bunch of military bases: Camp LeJeune, Seymour-Johnson, Fort Bragg [now Fort Liberty]. We’re kind of in the middle of that.”

“There’s a lot of military people around here,” Foster concurs. “And retired military.” But in the end, he accounts for the celebration’s popularity with just one word: “Patriotism.”