Ralph H. Johnson VA hospital hosts 23rd annual Veterans Day parade in downtown Charleston
The Charleston Veterans Day Parade stepped off from Concord and Market streets with a flyover from Joint Base Charleston's 437th Airlift Wing and a route ending near Colonial Lake.
The Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System hosted the 23rd annual Charleston Veterans Day Parade in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday, November 5, 2023, according to coverage from WCIV. The VA medical center's own reporting confirmed this was "the 23rd year the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center will be coordinating this celebratory Veterans Day parade," in partnership with the City of Charleston, honoring veterans of every generation.
Opening remarks began at 12:50 p.m., with the parade stepping off at 1 p.m. from the corner of Concord Street and Market Street. The route continued west on Market Street to East Bay Street, south on East Bay Street to Broad Street, and west on Broad Street before ending near Colonial Lake, according to the reported route.
The program featured a national anthem performance by the Laing Chorus. The available reporting did not name a designated grand marshal for the 2023 parade, nor did it list the specific veteran service organizations, floats or bands taking part beyond the parade's official program elements.
A flyover and a two-decade-plus tradition
Joint Base Charleston's 437th Airlift Wing provided a flyover of a C-17 Globemaster III during the event, according to the WCIV report. Reaching a 23rd consecutive year places the parade's founding in the early 2000s, making it one of the longer-running joint VA-municipal Veterans Day observances in the Lowcountry, coordinated each year by the Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System alongside the City of Charleston.
Who took part
H. Wayne Capps, the VA health system's public affairs chief, delivered a welcome address, and Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg made remarks at the event, according to the WCIV report. The specific content of their remarks was not quoted in the retrieved coverage.
The hospital behind the parade
The Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, located at 109 Bee Street in downtown Charleston, operates 24/7 and provides a broad range of primary and specialty care, including cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, oncology, cardiology, mental health and PTSD treatment, substance abuse treatment, and care for military sexual trauma, according to the VA's own facility description. It also maintains a Fisher House on-site for the families of hospitalized patients and offers a Veterans Crisis Line for mental health emergencies. The scale of clinical services based at the medical center underscores why its outreach extends beyond its own campus to a citywide civic event each November.
What the event signals
The parade's continued run for more than two decades — coordinated jointly by a VA hospital system and city government, with an active-duty military flyover from a nearby joint base — reflects Charleston's positioning as a Lowcountry hub for veteran services and military-community ties. The pairing of a federal medical system with municipal government on a recurring civic event is itself notable: VA hospital systems more typically confine public-facing outreach to their own campuses rather than co-anchoring a city's downtown parade route year after year.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by WCIV. It restores a story originally published on this site in November 2023; figures are as reported at the time.