The 107th New York City Veterans Day Parade

Nation pausing today to honor the men and the women who answered the call to serve the United States military. Let's get you right out to Fox 5's Kelly Kennedy. Thousands are getting ready to march through Midtown for the annual New York City Veterans Day Parade. Hey Kelly. Hey, Francis, how's it going? It's already, the parade is already starting, even though it doesn't fully kick off till 1230. You could already see you have motorcycles down the block here getting ready to go. We just saw some local high school ROTC groups marching. The energy is on full display. The patriotism out here on Fifth Avenue. And of course, today is about more than just a parade, right? It's about the men and women who served our country and all the sacrifices that they've made. Now, we also want to talk with some people who made a sacrifice firsthand. I have a local veteran I'm joined with right now. This is Roy Knowings. He served in the Army. He's from Harlem. He served from 1978 to 1985. Roy, happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service. How does it feel to be here today? It feels great. It feels so great to be out here. And I love to see these young people who just joined the service to have a great time. And whatever they do, whatever they take up in the future or not, All I can tell you is just keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. And I salute to the young veterans because they've got a lot ahead of them and a lot of education to do also. So, yeah. And when you think back on your service, what stands out to you the most? What do you want people to know about the sacrifices that veterans make? Well, all I can say is that wherever you go, whatever you do, okay, like I said, you keep your head up, right? You get more education because the more education you get, the more you can learn. Because what you put in, you can get more out of it. This is what I learned from my commander. One of my commanders used to say, how high you want to go is entirely up to you. Yes. What does it mean to you to be out here today, to see all these fellow veterans, to see all the support from the community here? Well, I ran into a couple of them, I used to say, back in the 70s, it was great to see them again, they saw me, they remember my name, I remember them, so it's a great feeling to be out here, just having a great time with the people in the community. I'd like to thank everyone who came out here too also. What does this day overall mean to you? Today means that I'm proud to serve my country and I'm proud, like I said before, young people serving their country and I'd like to see, like I said before, there's so many ways I could just think of, but all I can say is just keep your head up and believe these young people will have their fun and continue what they're doing serving their country. Roy Knowings, U.S. Army Veterans, thank you so much for your service. Now, again, the parade doesn't officially kick off until 1230, so we're going to have another look at about that time to show you all of the action going on here. But everyone really excited, and this is also a big year for the parade because it coincides with America's 250th birthday as well as the 25th anniversary of 9-11. So we'll be back to give you a look at that in just a little bit. For now, we're live along Fifth Avenue. Francis, I'll send it back to you. An especially meaningful year. Kelly Kennedy, thank you.