|
St. Augustine, FL – On Veterans Day, Nov 11, the Castillo de San Marcos will be open free to the public in honor of our veterans’ service to our nation. To commemorate 451 years of militia in St. Augustine, the Veterans Council of St. Johns County is sponsoring a Veterans Day Military Review parade that will pass the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument at 11:00 a.m. The parade will include historic military vehicles, military units, and some of the Castillo’s living history volunteers.
After the parade, the vehicles and volunteers will make their way to the Castillo, where the vehicles will be on display in the visitor parking lot from approximately 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Within the walls of the Castillo you will be met by volunteers of various time periods, displaying a timeline of the Castillo’s military history, and living history encampments represented by park volunteers. The timeline will include representatives of the First and Second Spanish periods, the British period, the Civil War period, and World War II. Please join us to celebrate our nation’s veterans and explore the history of the many flags that have flown over the Castillo and the people who have shaped history from within its coquina walls.
In addition commemorating our country’s veterans, we will be joined by the current military in the form of a United States Coast Guard helicopter and crew from Jacksonville’s HITRON Squadron. Take a look at the helicopter and visit with the crew on the Fort’s north green.
Built by the Spanish in St. Augustine to defend Florida and the Atlantic trade route, Castillo de San Marcos National Monument preserves the oldest fortification in the continental United States, and interprets more than 450 years of cultural intersections. Learn more at www.nps.gov/casa and visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/CastilloNPS and twitter.com/CastilloNPS.
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 413 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov and visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.-NPS- |
Last updated: November 8, 2016