The Tarrant County Veterans Day Parade made Vietnam veteran Larry Boetch proud, a feeling he had not felt when he returned from the war.
Boetch volunteered in the draft and landed in Vietnam as a 19-year-old infantryman. He spent nearly a year in the war torn country. When he finally returned home in 1968 to a not-so-warm welcome, he took off his uniform and placed it in his closet where it stayed until it was eventually lost, he said.
“It has been a long time coming, and it makes me feel proud now when before I wasn’t,” he said.
Tarrant County’s Saluting Vietnam War Veterans Veterans Day parade kicked off downtown at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The parade featured high school ROTCs and marching bands, American Legion branches and more. Among attendees, the parade repeatedly struck notes of pride.
Larry Boetch and his wife, Cindy, watch the Tarrant County Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2025, in downtown Fort Worth. (John Forbes | Fort Worth Report)
Fort Worth Resident Tuyen Kamo and her family were among the first to arrive — about an hour and a half before the parade started.
Her father fought for the South Vietnamese alongside American troops. He was eventually shot, captured and taken to a reeducation camp where he endured torture and other hardship for about six years before he was released, she said. They came to the United States shortly after.
“I know (Vietnam War veterans) had a hard time coming back,” she said. “I don’t want them to feel like it was all in vain because there is a huge Vietnamese community that is forever grateful for what they tried to do to help save us.”
Fort Worth residents Chris, left, Isabelle and Tuyen Kamo wait for the Tarrant County Veterans Day Parade to begin on Nov. 11, 2025. (John Forbes | Fort Worth Report)
Tracy Brown, finance officer of Fort Worth’s Emanuel L. Young Post 838 American Legion of Texas, said a majority of vets in the historically Black post are Vietnam veterans. The representation of their post in the parade brought pride, he said.
Cedric Lee, a member of the same post, said many Black veterans have lost a sense of pride because they are unappreciated.
“I think if we could shine a spotlight back on minority veterans, it would bring a sense of pride back to every community around Fort Worth,” he said.
Fort Worth native Cedric Lee, left, helps fellow Gulf War veteran Tracy Brown hold his grandson, Booker T. Johnson V, off the ground for a photo during the Tarrant County Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2025. (John Forbes | Fort Worth Report)
Brown brought his 3-year-old grandson, Booker T. Johnson V, to the parade. He hopes the parade instills a sense of pride in him as well.
This year’s parade route was used for the first time in years, said Bruce Zielsdorf, 2nd Vice President of the Tarrant County Veterans Council.
The route departed from Panther Island Pavilion, marched up West Belknap Street and looped around the Tarrant County Courthouse before traveling back down the same street. Parade marchers on Belknap had to move to the side of the street to make room for earlier marchers going the opposite direction. The bottleneck forced some halts of the parade.
The parade’s crowd was sparse at first in the brisk morning cold, but grew to a couple hundred people shortly after the sun came out and the procession began. Families gathered along the sidewalks of Belknap, sitting on curbs or standing along the route to cheer on military members who waved back from their cars.
Fort Worth residents Torryn and Ronan Wortham admire the Tarrant County Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11, 2025. (John Forbes | Fort Worth Report)
John Forbes is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at john.forbes@fortworthreport.org.
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