VETERANS DAY PARADE
HONORING OUR VETERANS 2021 EV Veterans Parade celebrates art in wartime TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
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fter its pandemic-driven “parade in reverse” last year, the annual East Valley Veterans Parade will return this week with boots on the ground, marching music in the air and spectators lining the streets. And this year the parade theme celebrates the impact of art and artists during wartime. The parade will begin at 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, in regular format at Center Street and University Drive, Mesa, then proceed south on Center, turning west onto 1st Street and continuing to Robson. Art can inform and inspire. It can capture complicated emotions and record history from a unique viewpoint. These roles of art and artists take on added emphasis in times of war. Portrait artists have captured the faces of historic military leaders for posterity. Sculptors have created compelling monuments to important wartime turning points and history. From armed services recruitment posters to advertisements for war bonds, war-
seemed to appear first at every combat, training or occupation operation and was the last to leave. Messages like “Uncle Sam Wants You” or “Buy War Bonds” also appeared on some iconic art that many are familiar with. Posters during World War II were designed to instill a positive outlook, a sense of patriotism and confidence. They linked the war in trenches with the war at home and were used to encourage all Americans to The 2021 East Valley Veterans Parade will be in a traditional help with the war effort. parade format this year, celebrating art and artists and their WWII also saw the rise impact during wartime. Even simple “thank you” posters have of “nose art” that united a special meaning for those who served (Special to the Tribune) and encouraged members time art and artists throughout the nation’s of the Air Force. Who hasn’t seen the iconic Memphis Belle history have created works that rallied the on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress? Nose home front and boosted troop morale. The image of “Kilroy was Here” became art is probably the first connection the synonymous with service, dedication and leaps to mind. While frequently employing commitment of U.S. Armed Forces through- the image of women, nose art often conout WWII and the Korean War. Kilroy sisted of ominous messages to enemies.
In the midst of the difficulties of war, soldiers have found creative ways to express their feelings and deal with boredom, build comradery, identify/brag about home or unit and display patriotism. Using whatever materials they found on hand, they created trench art and have turned ordinary T-wall concrete barriers into works of art and expression. T-walls became the palette of the modern war artist. Coming into prominence during the conflicts in the Middle East, these concrete barriers are used for a variety of purposes. From small walls at traffic control points to giant retaining walls to protect against deadly threats like IEDs, T-walls are an everyday sight. Their stark gray appearance is an invitation to the murals that inevitably followed. Trench art is a term used to describe objects made from the debris and by-products of modern warfare. Often trench art was made to pass the time in a “hurry up and wait” environment. Even Kilroy, the ‘meme before memes’,
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Holocaust survivor is EV vet parade’s Grand Marshal TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
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apt. Alexander White, a concentration camp survivor who lost his entire family to the Nazis, is the 2021 East Valley Veterans Parade Grand Marshal. Born in 1923, in Krosno, Poland, near the Ukraine/Slovakian borders, White as a teenager lived through the liquidation of the Krosno Ghetto, then spent a year in the Luftwaffe Labor Camp and six months in the concentration camp at KrakowPlassow. In October 1944, his name appeared on a list of workers assigned to German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who was relocating his factory
Capt. Alexander White, shown on left in his Army uniform, is the 2021 East Valley Veterans Parade Grand Marshal. (Special to the Tribune) from Poland to the Sudetenland to avoid advancing Soviet armies.
White surmises that he ended up on Schindler’s list because his profession was
listed as a glazier and painter. His specialty in glazing made him a rare commodity. Upon arrival at Schindler’s factory, he was assigned to a small area of the factory to work as a glazier. White survived the last months of the Holocaust at Schindler’s camp in Bruennlitz, Sudetenland, and was liberated on the last day of the war in Europe, May 8, 1945, from the camp – as shown in the movie “Schindler’s List.” After liberation, he made his way to Germany where, in 1950 as a refugee, he earned a medical degree from the University of Munich. Soon thereafter, he immigrated to the United States. In 1953, he married Inez Libby, a Chicagoan, and joined the U.S. Army. He received a commission as a first lieutenant
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