Petaluma’s scaled down salute to vets

Petaluma veterans have faced Nazis, Viet Cong, Taliban and other enemies. When their current adversary emerged as the coronavirus, they reverted to their training, adjusted and carried out their mission.

“If you were to go into battle, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Steve Kemmerle, 75, an Army veteran who has organized the Petaluma Veteran’s Day Parade for the past 16 years. “You just adjust and go with it.”

The Petaluma Veteran’s Day Parade, a long tradition in the city, passed through downtown Wednesday with all the pomp but different circumstances. Gone were the marching groups and equestrians. No Huey helicopter buzzed the crowd lining city streets. In fact, crowds were discouraged from gathering because of the pandemic.

But Petaluma still honored Veteran’s Day with a procession. At the symbolic time of 11:11 a.m. about 100 cars, World War II jeeps, military vehicles and motorcycles behind a Petaluma Police escort left the Veteran’s Building for a trip down Petaluma Boulevard, East Washington Street and McDowell Boulevard.

“It’s important to recognize the sacrifices of our heroes in a safe manner,” said Joe Noriel, who this year assumed the role of parade organizer from the retiring Kemmerle. “We take our democracy for granted. A lot of our freedoms would not be possible without our veterans.”

Noriel, 54, a member of the American Legion Riders motorcycle group and founder of the nonprofit History Connection, spearheaded the effort to recognize Petaluma as a Purple Heart City. Although he is not a veteran, his father served in World War II and Korea, and he has always felt drawn to veterans causes.

When the pandemic threatened to cancel the Petaluma Veteran’s Day Parade, a 32-year tradition that has typically drawn about 45,000 people to downtown, Noriel wanted to find a way to keep it going.

“We wanted to do a scaled down representation of the parade,” he said.

To highlight the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, the parade this year honored women veterans, including Petaluma’s Rose Nowak, an Air Force Veteran and the Sonoma County Veteran of the Year.

Nowak, who leads the local chapter of Military Women Across the Nation, said being able to interact with fellow veterans outside of the Veteran’s Building at the start of the parade was a special treat after spending months in pandemic-induced isolation.

“This year, it’s about camaraderie, just seeing everyone,” said Nowak, 80. “Today is special after being holed up for nine months.”

The parade still had some very Petaluma-centric touches. A motorcycle towed a trailer with a sculpture of a chicken dressed as an American Legionnaire that was fabricated by the late veteran Chuck Anderson, according to Jack Schipper, a Petaluma Navy veteran who served in the Pacific.

Schipper, who has participated in every Petaluma Veteran’s Day Parade since its inception in 1988, said it’s important to keep the tradition alive.

“This is a chance to appreciate the sacrifices made by those who make it possible to have a free nation,” he said. “It is very different this year, but we still have to show that we have a lot of pride in our veterans.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)