General Vang Pao leading Veteran's Day parade

10,000 Veterans Expected in Wednesday's Parade

Valley residents will gather to honor the men and women who have served our country.

Nearly 10,000 veterans are expected to march through the streets of downtown Fresno in this year’s parade.

It will start around 10:30 a.m. with an opening ceremony at Fresno City Hall. The Grand Marshal is Captain James Knapp, the Commanding Officer at Lemoore Naval Air Station.

There will be another guest of honor this year, Hmong leader General Vang Pao, a first not only for Fresno but the country.

It's the first time General Pao has ever participated in a parade. Pao was sought out by the CIA during the Vietnam War and helped lead the Hmong during conflict.

Fresno Veteran Charlie Waters said, “They're the ones who destroyed the equipment coming through Laos into Vietnam and they also saved American pilots lives. They were shot down and they were the ones that went into the jungle and rescued them and took them back to safety.” More than 30,000 Hmong soldiers died in the war.

The parade route begins at P and Tulare, near City Hall and ends near Tulare and H Street at Chukchansi Park.

To prepare, the City of Fresno will shut down streets along the parade route beginning around 8:00 a.m.



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Hmong Vets Say They Deserve Benefits

Hmong–Americans who fought for the United States during the Vietnam War are not allowed to be buried in national cemeteries. But there’s a push to change that. And one local Hmong vet says it’s about time.
By: Steve Milne

Wed Nov 11, 2009



(Sacramento, CA)
Long Ly was 17-years-old and living in his native Laos when he was recruited and trained by the CIA to help fight a covert war in Southeast Asia 40-years ago.

“He says ‘to this day I still think about it and I still get very scared when I think about my time in the war.’”

Ly’s translator is Nancy Ly…his daughter.

“’So, during the war I remember we were always watching our backs. Our guns were never on the safety lock because you never knew when you would be attacked.’”

Ly was a soldier from 1968 to 1975. After the war, Laos fell into communist hands. Ly and his family spent several harsh years in a Thai refugee camp and finally made their way to the U.S. in 1978.

“I don’t feel that the Americans did abandon us 100%. I mean I am here with my family after all. But they could’ve done more to help us.”

Nancy Ly says it’s only been recently that her father has opened up to her and her siblings about his wartime experiences. Growing up in south Sacramento, she didn’t know much about it…other than seeing a black and white photo of her dad in his uniform taken in the late ‘60s.

“You know, the picture’s always been there but none of us has just asked about it. I think like many war veterans, this is something that’s very hard to talk about. A lot of times there are certain issues that come up and you don’t understand why your father acts a certain way and then you think about all the terrible things that he’s seen in his lifetime. I think it makes you just understand your parents a little bit more.”

The Ly family is among an estimated 250,000 Hmong who live in California with the largest concentrations in Sacramento, Stockton and Fresno. Ly says he’s lived in America for many years now and wishes the U.S would give him benefits like other veterans for military service.

“We fought with American guns, we died for Americans, we died saving Americans. So in a lot of ways we are American veterans and we deserve every single right that every American veteran has, including to be buried in a veteran’s cemetery.”

And a group of federal lawmakers is working on making that happen. Central Valley legislators are drafting a bill that would allow Ly and other Hmong veterans to be buried in U.S. national cemeteries.

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His mission: Salute veterans in big way

Bill Dietzel has kept the regimen of a military man and, at 75, has the flat belly and straight posture to prove it. Mornings start with push-ups, sit-ups and a mile run -- the family dog, a Queensland heeler, tagging along.

Sweat wiped from his brow, Dietzel then often focuses on veterans issues. This time of year, that means planning and organizing the Fresno Veterans Day Parade.

Dietzel is from the bigger-is-better school of promotion. Under his leadership, the parade has grown from 2,000 participants in 2003 to the 9,000 expected to march Wednesday in downtown Fresno.

The 90th edition of the parade will honor the Navy, and Capt. James R. Knapp, the commanding officer at Lemoore Naval Air Station, is the grand marshal.

"The entire U.S. Navy will be there, hopefully," Dietzel says, laughing. "It will be the greatest parade on Earth."



The folks in charge of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade might disagree. But the Fresno parade is becoming a big deal beyond our city's borders, with television coverage on the Armed Forces Network and the Pentagon Channel.

"Last year, we received e-mail comments from people in 32 cities plus the [aircraft carriers] Carl Vinson and Theodore Roosevelt," Dietzel says.

Among those in this year's parade: Hmong Gen. Vang Pao and an estimated 600 Hmong army veterans. In addition, the five Clovis Unified high schools will form a single marching band of 500. They'll be joined by 25 other marching bands plus floats, military vehicles and military units.

"This is the first time since he came to the United States that Gen. Vang Pao has entered a parade, and he's really excited about it," Dietzel says. "This will be very powerful. His presence provides an opportunity to let the public know what the Hmong did for us in the Vietnam War, saving the lives of hundreds and hundreds of American fliers."

Combining the Clovis bands also is a first, according to Clovis North band director David Lesser, who previously directed Clovis West's band. Lesser says that the combined unit will play John Phillip Sousa's "Hands Across the Sea," but each school's drum line will take turns rapping out its own cadence.

"Our schools are competitive, but we wanted to come together to support the military," Lesser says. "We said, 'Let's do something big.' "

Dietzel says that it's important to publicly acknowledge the sacrifices that veterans have made -- and will continue to make -- to preserve America's freedoms.

"We have two wars that are on, and our young men and women are sacrificing every day with their lives," he says.

That point was driven home again last week at Fort Hood with shootings that killed 13 and wounded at least 29. The suspected gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, reportedly opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dietzel says that the Fort Hood victims will be honored with a moment of silence before the parade.

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