Angelenos across L.A. County celebrate Veterans Day

Veterans Day has been marked in various ways across Los Angeles County on Monday.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass took the opportunity to highlight the city’s progress on confronting the issue of veteran homelessness.

“No Angeleno who served our country should sleep on the street,” Bass said. “We have made progress to support our unhoused Veterans by changing policy so that they no longer have to choose between their disability benefits and their housing. Now we must continue this progress by connecting them with available housing in Los Angeles and eliminating red tape in our way.”

Pasadena used its celebration to pay tribute to a Marine Corps reserve battalion that’s headquartered in the city. The celebration included a Yellow Ribbon Ceremony with music by the Pasadena Scottish Pipes and Drums.

Afterwards, the Condor Squadron conducted a flyover at 11:11 a.m. in restored North American Aviation AT-6/SNJ trainers that were originally flown during World War II.  The San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade started right after the flyover. 

At the Santa Monica Pier, free meals and ride tickets to Pacific Park were given to veterans and active military members. A ceremony at the pier included a military flyover with Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters.

Other celebrations also happened in Azusa, Alhambra, Baldwin Park, Carson, Cerritos, Long Beach, Monterey Park, Norwalk, Palmdale and Santa Clarita.

President Joe Biden held a Veterans Day proclamation and declared, "Each one of our nation's veterans is a link in a chain of honor that stretches back to our founding days -- bound by a sacred oath to support and defend the United States of America.

"Throughout history, whenever and wherever the forces of darkness have sought to extinguish the flame of freedom, America's veterans have been fighting to keep it burning bright. I remember so clearly the pride the first lady and I felt in our son Beau during his service in Iraq. He -- like all our veterans from Belleau Wood, Baghdad, and Gettysburg to Guadalcanal, Korea, and Kandahar and beyond -- lived, served, and sacrificed by a creed of duty.

"We owe them a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay, not just for fighting for our democracy, but for giving back to our communities and inspiring the next generation to serve, even after they hang up their uniforms."

President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Veterans Day in November 1919, a year after World War I ended. Soon after, states started to declare Nov. 11 a legal holiday. Veterans Day became a federal holiday in 1938.