Veterans’ Club honor the U.S. Marines with parade float

Tiffany Hawley, Will Bustos, and Brandon Crites paint a Homecoming parade float they built for the Homecoming parade to honor the U.S. Marines on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015.

The Kent State Veterans’ Club built a Homecoming parade float to honor the U.S. Marines for Saturday’s Homecoming parade.

Each year the Veteran’s Club honors a different branch of service by building a float to display during the parade. In past years the club has built a tank, a boat and an airplane all to represent different branches of the military, according to Dawn Pugh, Veterans Club Advisor.

The club built an Assault Amphibious Vehicle to honor the U.S. Marines. According to the U.S Marines website, the Assault Amphibious Vehicle is used by the Marines for the objective of ship-to-shore missions. The Assault Amphibious Vehicle travels from sea to land to transport Marines or cargo.

“The theme of old and new is a timeline painted along side the float,” said Ryan Lewand, Veterans Club President. “As usual we will have something rigged to dispense candy during the parade.”

A restored Korean War Era Jeep will pull the float down the parade route. The Jeep’s owner is Kent State photographer Bob Christy. 

Lauren Phillips is the Military/Veterans reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].