This morning I got to help out my club, the Mid-Del Amateur Radio Club (MDARC) help out with Midwest City's 2021 Veterans Day Parade. It was really good to help out especially since it had been several years since the last Veterans Day Parade. The last several have been cancelled by weather, COVID-19 etc.
I was in the position of the Spotter, which meant I was positioned about 1/4 mile from the grandstand and as a float go to my position I would radio another amateur radio operator that was at the grandstand and tell him what floats and in what order was coming up. Then he would take that information and give it to the announce who then announced the floats. We had about 50 floats this year when we usually have around 100 floats.
The Mid-Del Amateur Radio Club has a great relationship with Midwest City, OK. We help the city out with the Veteran's Day Parade and the 4th of July celebration. We also help out during emergency conditions. Since we are in central Oklahoma we get tornadoes, wildfires, blizzards, ice and snow storms etc. In return, the city of Midwest City helps the club out for Field Day and Winter Field Day. The Midwest City Fire Department comes out to the park that we have Field Day at and they set up a really nice shelter.
This shelter comes with a really large generator and has AC.
It was nice and chilly in the morning right up until the parade started and then the weather was just about perfect.
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It was a real good time to come out and show our gratitude to America's finest soldiers. Midwest City was built in the shadow of Tinker Air Force Base and every day we show our pride in America's armed forces. We owe everything to our soldiers. I live about 2 blocks west of the flight line so needless to say we hear planes coming in and taking off 24/7. To some the loud noise is annoying. To my family, the noise of a big military jet like the B1 Bomber, well that is just the sound of Freedom and is to be savored.
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