Soldiers from 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division salute the colors during the Veterans Day ceremony at the Old Glory Memorial in El Paso, Texas, Nov. 11, 2019. With help from city and county law enforcement, Bulldog brigade Soldiers escorted Old Glory during the Northeast El Paso Veterans Day Parade, which ended at the memorial, where it was raised. (Photo by David Poe, USAG Fort Bliss)

Fort Bliss, El Paso partner for first joint Veterans Day celebration

 By David Poe, USAG Fort Bliss

On a parade route that crossed Castner Heights streets such as Gen. Maloney Circle, R.T. Cassidy Drive, and R.L. Shoemaker Drive, all named after storied Fort Bliss senior commanders, Bliss Soldiers joined their Sun City neighbors for the 2019 Northeast El Paso Veterans Day parade, Nov. 11, 2019. 

While Bliss-based Soldiers have been invited to join the Veterans Day parade for more than a decade, the joint effort between the Army and nonprofit El Paso Texas Flags Across America was a first for the Sun City. 

El Paso Texas Flags Across America is an all-volunteer organization that prides itself on encouraging “love and pride of country” in area kids and educates proper flag etiquette and display. In 2003, the group organized and fundraised for the 180-foot flagpole that stands at the Old Glory Memorial, which was the site of the Nov. 11 joint Veterans Day ceremony.

Although troops and military families from across Fort Bliss gathered in and out of uniform for the event, Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment were the official Army detail as they escorted the holiday colors along the parade route. They were joined by a detachment of El Paso-area Young Marines, a military standard-focused youth organization, as well as veterans groups from around the region for the parade to Old Glory.

Standing in for Maj. Gen. Patrick Matlock, the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss commanding general who is currently deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, Col. Matthew Eichburg, the acting senior commander, said while Veterans Day may be about America’s veterans, he wanted to make sure the audience remembered those who supported those troops the most along the way.

“Despite the fact that we have tremendous veterans who have served this country since its infancy,” he said, “throughout that time, the only way that service was possible was for the families who were with those service members — both the men and the women — so if we could have a round of applause for the husbands, the wives, the kids, the parents for without whom this could not be possible.”

After sharing stories of leadership and mentors who have touched his life, Joe Molinar, president of the Castner Heights Neighborhood Association and the keynote speaker for the event, who called his invitation to speak an opportunity to share his hope for the future, said he wanted veterans in attendance to continue to serve others.

“I ask that all veterans become a mentor to someone they know,” said the former Marine and veteran El Paso police officer and detective. “You have skill sets that are unique and provide a great opportunity for others to emulate.

“When I was asked to be the guest speaker, I knew I was going to talk to a lot of Soldiers, a lot of veterans, and I thought, ‘what are words that I can say?,’” he said. “I hope you take home a message that you all have a set of responsibilities. Responsibilities to yourselves, to your communities and others to do something well and do something right ... mentor others … our communities will grow.”