POWELL — Powell-based organization members proudly toted red, white and blue as they marched through downtown for the city’s annual Memorial Day Parade.
Residents lined Liberty and Olentangy Streets to watch the hour-long parade before heading to Liberty Green’s Greater Powell Veterans Memorial to hear a speech from retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Dennis McWatters.
McWatters was commissioned as a Marine officer after graduating from Texas Tech University and accepted for Naval Flight School in Pensacola, Fla., where he eventually received his fighter pilot wings.
He was briefly stationed at a Marine squadron in North Carolina before he was sent to Vietnam, where he flew numerous missions over North Vietnam from DaNang airbase.
McWatters was promoted to captain and became a check pilot and test pilot at the squadron and group levels.
He told the crowd about his journey growing up in “the middle of nowhere” Texas where he worked on a farm and was inspired to join the military after watching a military airplane fly above.
“I’m on this tractor and I’m like, ‘Well, I really want to be up there. I don’t want to be down here,'” McWatters said.
“I talk about the flying very readily, but ask my family, I never talk about the war in detail because it’s kind of a private thing. It’s weird for veterans who have been in combat to talk about that because you see other people that you think had it a lot worse than you,” he said.
“And it’s true. And the people who had it worse are those who lost their life fighting for their country, and had given it all.”
McWatters asked those listening to think about a friend or family member who served, and take the time to think about them today.
