Paul Walsh Veterans Day Parade

Down Miracle Mile on a Saturday morning

The parade forms in the Riverview Mall parking lot and moves off at 10 a.m., heading south on Miracle Mile through Bullhead City. It is held on the Saturday before Veterans Day. The 18th Annual Paul Walsh Veterans Day Parade is set for Saturday, November 7, 2026, on the stretch of Miracle Mile between Lewis Drive and Marble Canyon Drive. In 2021 the route ended at Scooter’s Family Fun Center. When the 13th parade passed that year, spectators lined the Mile from the mall southward.

The line of march is made up of floats, marching bands, car clubs and veterans’ groups. The Mohave Valley Daily News counted dozens of veterans organizations, car and motorcycle clubs, school groups and civic organizations in the 16th parade in 2024. Earlier parades also drew scouts and civic clubs, and Mayor Tom Brady rode with the City Council. In 2021 the Mohave High School AFJROTC color guard marched in military uniform and carried the United States flag and the flags of the military services, and the band from the Mohave Accelerated Learning Center, known as MALC, played along the route. Motorcyclists turn out in numbers. The Daily News reported that a number of motorcyclist groups rode in the 15th parade in 2023, and that hundreds of people came to watch.

A grand marshal leads each year. Bullhead City Police Sgt. Shawn Brooks had the post in 2020. In 2021 it went to Sergeant Major Anthony J. Pompos, USMC, who served from 1993 to 2021.

Trophies at the announcer’s booth

Entries compete for most patriotic, and the top three are announced as soon as the parade ends. In 2021 the trophies were handed out at the announcer’s booth on Miracle Mile behind Swanty’s Chrysler of Bullhead City. The city’s release that year listed the 2020 winners as a VFW post first, the 928 Desert Riders second and the Mohave High School AFJROTC third. In 2022 the MALC marching band and cheer squad took first place. The 2024 winners were VFW Post 10055, the Tri-State Military Moms and AmVets Post 19, in that order.

The 2020 parade went on under COVID rules. In 2021, with the rules relaxed, marching bands could take part again and a float could carry more than six people. Debbie Hendren, one of the organizers, told the public that year: “as much as we want you at the parade, use common sense, if you are not feeling well, please stay home.”

Paul and Patsy Walsh

Paul Walsh was a Korean War veteran and a member of the local 1st Marine Division Association, and he organized the first of these parades. A Daily News report from November 2020 dated the start to 11 years earlier. The event was called the Tri-State Veterans Parade at first. The city’s recreation department joined Walsh in starting it, and Dave Heath, the city’s Parks and Recreation Superintendent, said the partnership grew from there.

“Paul was just this amazing example of positivity and energy, who was certainly doing this for the right reasons,” Heath said in 2021. “His passion for this parade was infectious, and anybody he talked to about it, wanted to be involved.”

When Walsh died, the parade was renamed for him. The city’s 2021 release placed his death four years before that year’s parade. His widow, Patsy Walsh, took over the organizing. “We are hoping to have a lot of people at the Parade to show their support for our Veterans,” she said before the 13th parade. The city now lists itself as host of the event. The Daily News credits the Colorado River Chapter of the First Marine Division Association, Walsh’s own organization, as co-host with the city. The city’s events page for the parade carries the line “HONORING ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED.”

After the 15th parade in 2023, a Daily News photograph showed Patsy Walsh, co-coordinator of the parade named for her late husband, handing over the trophy for most patriotic float.