Mon City to host county Veterans Day parade
MONONGAHELA – Monongahela Veterans Council will host this year’s Washington County Veterans Day parade Saturday following a guest appearance by a city native who rose to the rank of four-star general, serving as chief of staff of the U.S. Army during the Gulf War.
Retired Gen. Carl E. Vuono will participate in 9:30 a.m. veterans services at Chess Park, where the council also will recognize him by renaming Monongahela Bridge in his honor.
The service will then relocate to the bridge along Route 88 south to unveil a sign dedicating the span as the Gen. Carl E. Vuono Bridge.
“I believe it’s only proper for the elected members of this city to commemorate the sacrifices of the men and women from this area who have served their country by renaming the (bridge) after Gen. Vuono,” Monongahela Councilman Tom Caudill said.
Maj. Gen. Kimberly A. Siniscalchi, a native of nearby Charleroi, will speak at an invitation-only 11:30 a.m. luncheon at Monongahela Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1409 in the 700 block of East Main Street. Siniscalchi, who serves as assistant Air Force surgeon general, will later serve as parade marshal.
The parade featuring more than 70 units and a military fly-over will form at Chess Park before the march route follows Main Street south, beginning at 2 p.m.
“It’s going to be great,” said Tom Corey, general chairman of the Veterans Council. “It’s looking to be a great success.”
Sate Rep. Rick Saccone, R-Jefferson Hills, will serve as keynote speaker at the 9:30 a.m. program in Chess Park in the 600 block of West Main Street.
Vuono, 78, served three tours in the Vietnam War as an artillery battalion executive officer with the 1st Infantry Division.
He was nominated at age 52 to be Army chief of staff by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, becoming the Army’s youngest person to hold the post. He is a West Point graduate.
Siniscalchi earned her nursing degree in 1979 from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, after graduating from Charleroi Area High School, where she was a majorette.
She went on to serve as White House nurse for President George H.W. Bush from 1990 to 1993.