Parade praises veterans

SANDUSKY — Every year on July 4, including this past Friday, the Cedar Point Property Owners Association has coordinated an annual patriotic parade, going on 20 years now. Originally starting out as a car rally, it's now transitioned into a veterans celebration with military music and a parade. All neighborhood veterans who attend the opening are recognized after residents and their guests sing the national anthem together. This year, Betsy Feick Wilber served as the grand marshal. Sandusky ex officio mayor Dick Brady also provided some remarks. Veterans traveled on a parade route that traveled down Willow Drive for about 1 mile to Cedar Point and then followed a loop to travel the 4 miles of the Cedar Point Chaussee, ending at Point Retreat. Here's a bio about each participating veteran in this year's parade: • Lt. Colonel Rosser "Rosco" Baker — Flew A-6s and F-18s; His combat experience includes missions in the Mediterranean. He retired as the executive officer of the largest F-18 training squadron in the Navy, delivering hundreds of expertly trained pilots to the fleet. • Major Jon "Phlegm" Fleming — Flew A-6s and had significant ground combat experience; He won a Bronze Star for his actions at Khafji while serving as a U.S. adviser with PanArab forces during Desert Storm. After his military career, he now works at Amazon. • Lt. Colonel John "Scoop" May — Flew in A-6s and F-18s and served alongside this group • Major Greg McGory, U.S. Army — He's a 1982 graduate of West Point as well as a veteran of Desert Storm where he served as an aide-de-camp to two-star Major General Paul Schwartz. • Lt. Colonel Bill "Tree" Smith — Flew A-6s, F-18s and C-130s, among others; In addition to his Marine combat missions, Tree flew in and out of Antarctica. He still works at the Pentagon, managing unmanned aerial systems and can drone on and on about, well, drones. • Colonel George "Zambo" Zamka — Flew A-6s and F-18s who served during the Gulf War; He became a test pilot and astronaut, flying two Space Shuttle missions: Space Transport System 120 as a discovery pilot and Space Transport System 130 as the endurance mission commander. Both May and McGory are residents of the Chaussee and have remained buddies with these veterans since being assigned together in their first deployed squadron.