The nation's largest Veterans Day event, the New York City Veterans Day Parade hosted by the United War Veterans Council, will return on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, for its 104rd year with nearly 20,000 participants from across the U.S. marching up Fifth Avenue.
On Monday, March 20, 2023, the UWVC named retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Linnington the grand marshal of the 2023 parade.
The Army is this year's featured service for the event, which will run from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. between 26th and 47th streets in Manhattan. It will be broadcast live on WABC in New York, as well as live-streamed here on Military.com.
Linnington is CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project, which was founded in 2003 to provide care items to hospitalized service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, the WWP focuses on mental health, career counseling, long-term rehabilitative care and advocacy efforts.
Linnington's ceremonial naming took place on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan before an audience of veterans from all service eras and branches. Also present were dignitaries including James Hendon, commissioner of the New York City Department of Veterans' Services.
The UWVC ceremony also marked the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. At that time, then-Col. Linnington commanded the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), aka the "Screaming Eagles."
Linnington arrived at Wounded Warrior Project in 2016 with a mandate to turn things around after "allegations of waste and abuse, lavish all-hands conferences and unbridled spending on ticketed outings that did little lasting good for the veterans they purported to help," as Military.com reported in 2019.
Read More: After Public Crisis and Fall from Grace, Wounded Warrior Project Quietly Regains Ground
Linnington has held a variety of command and staff positions worldwide and received numerous awards and decorations.
"I am deeply honored to be chosen as this year's Veterans Day Parade Grand Marshal," Linnington said in a statement. "The 20th anniversaries of the War in Iraq and the Wounded Warrior Project call attention to the ongoing needs of veterans and their families who face a lifetime of visible and invisible wounds."
The 2022 grand marshal was Vincent W. Patton, the first Black master chief petty officer of the Coast Guard. He served in the Coast Guard's highest enlisted position from 1998 to 2002, when he retired after 30 years of active military service.
Every year, New York City's Veterans Day commemoration honors all eras of service and all service branches.
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