Veterans lament low turnout for Portland Memorial Day parade

PORTLAND (WGME) -- As communities across Maine celebrated Memorial Day with annual parades, the amount of people who showed up to watch the parade in Portland left veterans surprised and concerned.

Bob LaLiberte/Grand Marshal "This is a big city. I would think there would be more people participating," Grand Marshal Bob LaLiberte said.

LaLiberte and other veterans were saddened by the low turnout.

"This is a pretty sparse crowd," Army Airborne veteran Dick Aronson said. "I'm old enough to remember when this street used to be packed with people coming to the parades."

"But at least there's a lot of youngsters, which is great," he said.

Aronson served during peacetime, and he still gets chills watching video of US troops landing in Normandy on D-Day.

"If you had watched them coming off of those Higgins landing craft, just sitting ducks. It was very, very sad and we have to keep those people in our thoughts," he said.

This was first Portland Memorial Day parade without a World War II veteran. The defense department says World War II veterans are dying on an average of a thousand per week."

"I'm concerned as a citizen that we're running away from the things that made us great," Army veteran Mark Richard said. "I think it's evident today by the people that you see here. It's an older generation. Not as many young people. And it does make me sad."

Richard brings his family to the Memorial Day parade every year.

"I've got my granddaughter with me and my daughter with me today. So it's a tradition we uphold," he said.

Richard served as an observer for the Camp David Accord, monitoring troop movements in the Middle East.

He remembers the men he served with who died on their way home after their tour of duty ended.

"We lost 214 brave, brave men in that peacekeeping mission in a tragic plane crash. And I think of the other men and women who have sacrificed so much so that we can have the rights and privileges that we have today," Richard said.

Ernest Shorey USAF Ret./Master of Ceremonies

"We can ensure that the sacrifices made by our nation's finest and bravest never go unappreciated and that their memories are never forgotten," said Ernest Shorey, the parade's master of ceremonies and an Air Force veteran.