{"id":329008,"date":"2026-07-04T02:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329008\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T02:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:44:14","slug":"veterans-celebrate-americas-250th-birthday-in-miami-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329008\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday in Miami Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0July 3, 2026 at 10:32 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Veterans gathered Friday evening at the VFW Post in Miami Beach to salute America and celebrate the nation\u2019s 250th birthday on the eve of the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The event recognized the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the U.S. armed forces and everything they have done to defend the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cFreedom is never free,\u201d said retired U.S. Army Col. Noel Pace. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to recognize that fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The celebration also marked the kickoff of the VFW\u2019s fundraising campaign to support veterans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cFreedom is important to everybody,\u201d said Enrique Escobar, junior vice commander of VFW Post 3599.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Escobar, an Air Force veteran who served during the Vietnam War, said the holiday carries special meaning for those who have served.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThis is our freedom we\u2019re celebrating right now,\u201d Escobar said. \u201cAnd as veterans, we especially know that. We did things to save our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner thanked the veterans and supporters who attended the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be celebrating 250 if it wasn\u2019t for our veterans, so anytime the VFW throws a party we\u2019re here to support them because they\u2019ve supported us,\u201d Meiner said.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Byron Tollefson\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/author-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/b58c08f2-f400-4245-95df-.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Byron Tollefson<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Byron Tollefson joined Local 10 News as a reporter in July 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0July 3, 2026 at 10:32 PM MIAMI BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Veterans gathered Friday evening at the VFW Post&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-329008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}