By BEN FINLEY
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — James McDonough served in the U.S. Army for 27 years, fighting in Vietnam and delivering humanitarian aid to Rwanda. For him, Saturday’s military parade in Washington for the Army’s 250th anniversary — coinciding with President Donald Trump’s birthday — is about the resilience of a vital institution and the nation it serves.
“The soldiers marching that day represent all of that history,” said McDonough, 78, of Crofton, Maryland. “They don’t represent a single day. They don’t represent a single person. It’s the American Army still standing straight, walking tall, ready to defend our country.”
Christopher Purdy, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, called the parade a facade that paints over some of the Republican president’s policies that have targeted military veterans and current service members, including cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a ban on transgender troops.
Purdy said the parade, long sought by Trump, will needlessly display U.S. military might on the president’s 79th birthday.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Purdy, 40, of Atlanta. “It’s expensive. And whatever his reasons are for doing it, I think it’s entirely unnecessary.”
Until recently, the Army’s long-planned birthday celebration did not include a big parade. Added under the Trump administration, the event, featuring hundreds of military vehicles and aircraft and thousands of soldiers, has divided veterans.
Some liken it to the military chest-pounding commonly seen in North Korea, a step toward authoritarianism or a perverse birthday party for Trump.
Others see it as a once-in-a-lifetime accounting of the Army’s achievements and the military service of millions of soldiers over centuries. The parade is not about Trump, they say, but the public seeing the faces of soldiers when so few Americans serve.
The Army expects up to 200,000 people could attend and says the parade will cost an estimated $25…
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