Parade to honor injured vets

This year's Veterans Day parade in Las Vegas will feature more than 50 soldiers representing the Wounded Warrior Project, and organizers say events like this one play a big part in a soldier's homecoming after serving in combat.

"It is huge when they see the outpouring of support," said Mark Christianson of the Stars and Stripes Foundation, a group that raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project and helped put this event together.

"When they go through the route of the parade and they're out in front, it shows them they're still part of the community, they're still accepted, that people understand patriotism," added Billy Stojack, who is also with the Stars and Stripes Foundation.

The parade starts at 10 a.m. Tuesday and will proceed north on Fourth Street from Gass Avenue to the entrance of the Fremont Street Experience. It is free and open to the public.

The Wounded Warrior Project was founded to help severely injured service men and women, such as those who lost limbs, were badly burned or suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Christianson and Stojack, both Vietnam veterans, said it's important for veterans with serious injuries to learn how to reintegrate into daily life, and that their own experience taught them how easy it is to suffer a serious wound in combat.

"There but for the grace of God," Stojack said. "We had a saying in my unit: You don't worry about the bullet with your name on it. You don't duck that one. It's the one addressed 'to whom it may concern' that you worry about."