South Beach Veterans Day Parade Set for This Morning

Today is Veterans Day, and in South Beach that can mean only one thing: It's time for the eighth annual Miami Beach Veterans Day Parade, one of the biggest in the area.

Veterans Day occurs on the 11th day of the 11th month, so the parade kicks off today at the 11th minute of the 11th hour. For us civilians, that's 11:11 a.m.

Don't be late. The parade runs along Ocean Drive from 5 Street to 14 Street, then turns up 14 Street to Flamingo Park Baseball Stadium at 1435 Michigan Ave.

The All-Veterans Parachute Team is set to give an aerial demonstration as they drop into Flamingo Park for a wreath-laying ceremony and picnic.

Many people may not know that veterans from the World War II Army Air Corp played a major role in the development of Miami Beach.

"Miami Beach was the training grounds for air servicemen in 1940s," according to a city officials. "Many South Beach hotels were used as housing for the troops that would march and exercise on the beach, golf club and streets on regulation drills. The county causeway was renamed the MacArthur Causeway in honor of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. After the war, many of these veterans with 'sands in their shoes' made Miami Beach their permanent home."