Blue skies and ideal weather welcomed Southern Californians who turned out by the thousands to honor their myriad neighbors who served the nation in the armed forces.
Among the most homespun of tributes, the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day parade returned on Saturday at 11:11 a.m. as it does on the holiday each year.
Regarded widely as the biggest Veterans Day event in Los Angeles County, the parade held to its tradition of allowing only vets and their families ride in the 1.1-mile-long procession, which wound from Laurel Canyon and San Fernando Mission boulevards in Mission Hills, down Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and finally to Paxton Street at the Ritchie Valens Recreation Center in Pacoima.
Sen. Caroline Menjivar, D-Panorama City, served as the grand marshal.
Menjivar served in the Marine Corps from 2009-16, enlisting when she was 20, shortly after receiving an associate’s degree in fire technology from Los Angeles Valley College. She had hoped to be a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter, but a hiring freeze prompted by the recession delayed that plan.
“When I was in high school, I was part of the Police Academy Magnet where our main teacher was a Marine veteran,” Menjivar, a Reseda High School graduate, said. “Each time we ran, we would run to a Marine Corps cadence. We would do mini-obstacle courses copied after the courses Marine recruits had to complete.
“He spoke about the camaraderie, the physicality needed to be a Marine, and the fact that they were known as the best. I wanted to be part of that, I wanted to be ready for the fire department when they started hiring again, and I loved being on teams, so I joined the Marine Corps.”
Menjivar was mainly stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego and served as a radio operator and platoon sergeant. She was briefly stationed at Camp Pendleton where she also worked as a military police officer.
Menjivar was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on…
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