{"id":211778,"date":"2026-06-05T18:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211778\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:33:35","slug":"downtown-reading-parade-kicks-off-wwii-weekend-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211778\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Reading parade kicks off WWII weekend (photos)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The annual World War II Mid-Day Parade, presented by Downtown Reading and the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, in the 500 block of Penn Street on Friday kicked off the 35th Annual World War II Weekend through Sunday at Reading Regional Airport.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Lauren Wilkinson, left, of Cottage Grove, Minn., and Caitlin McKay of Hastings, Minn., portray nurses from the Army Nurse Corps during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\" width=\"3000\" height=\"333\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade657.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"6228542\" \/>Lauren Wilkinson, left, of Cottage Grove, Minn., and Caitlin McKay of Hastings, Minn., portray nurses from the Army Nurse Corps during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Jerry Sims of Muhlenberg Township, left, and Brian Goshert of Carlisle work on a leaky fuel pump on their Ford quarter-ton vehicle during the World War Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026 (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\" width=\"3000\" height=\"333\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade658.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"6228543\" \/>Jerry Sims of Muhlenberg Township, left, and Brian Goshert of Carlisle work on a leaky fuel pump on their Ford quarter-ton vehicle during the World War Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026 (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"American soldiers ride into Penn Square during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\" width=\"3000\" height=\"333\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade650.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"6228544\" \/>American soldiers ride into Penn Square during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"James Swope, coordinator of the World War II Weekend, speaks in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\" width=\"3000\" height=\"333\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade654.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"6228545\" \/>James Swope, coordinator of the World War II Weekend, speaks in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Sentimental Journey, a B-17 from the Commemorative Air Force...\" class=\"size-article_inline\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade659.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Sentimental Journey, a B-17 from the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa, Ariz., flies over the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026.   (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Army and Navy brass relax in the shade of an...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade655.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade655.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Army and Navy brass relax in the shade of an umbrella during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026.   (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trinity Griffitts of Lancaster portrays a wartime civilian during the...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade656.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade656.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Trinity Griffitts of Lancaster portrays a wartime civilian during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026.   (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"American soldiers mingle on Penn Square during the World War...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade653.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade653.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>American soldiers mingle on Penn Square during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026.   (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Berks County commissioners and their staff are photographed with...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade652.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/REG-L-WWIIWeekendParade652.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Berks County commissioners and their staff are photographed with reenactors during the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026.   (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\n<\/p>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 5<\/p>\n<p>The Sentimental Journey, a B-17 from the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa, Ariz., flies over the World War II Mid-Day Parade in downtown Reading on Friday, June 5, 2026.   (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The annual World War II Mid-Day Parade, presented by Downtown Reading and the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-211778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}