Seventy-Five Years For Chattanooga’s Armed Forces Day Parade

Retired U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell - on the UTC campus.(Angela Foster / UTC)Chattanooga is home to the longest, continuously staged Armed Forces Day Parade in this country.The military co-chairs for the first parade in 1949: Tennessee’s Alvin York, this nation’s most decorated soldier in World War I - and Charles H. Coolidge, Chattanooga’s own decorated hero in World War II.This Friday, the 75th annual parade will step off at 10:30 AM from the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Market St., travel down Market Street to West Aquarium Way, turn left and then finish at Chestnut St. - the same route as last fall’s parade for Capt. Larry Taylor, recipient of the Medal of Honor.The grand marshal for this year’s parade: B.B. Bell, retired four-star U.S. Army General - also the keynote speaker for the luncheon after the parade, starting at Noon at the Chattanooga Convention Center.I spoke with him - and a fellow alum of this campus: Mickey McCamish, retired U.S. Navy Captain with the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council, which hosts the parade.