MANSFIELD — The annual Veterans Day Parade in downtown Mansfield, scheduled for Tuesday, has been cancelled.
Parade marshal Denny Hempfield said Monday morning the cold weather was the reason for the change.
“It’s supposed to be very cold and windy. We have a lot of veterans in their 90s who cannot stand to be out in that kind of weather,” Hempfield said.
According to the National Weather Service office in Cleveland, the high temperature in Mansfield on Tuesday is expected to only reach 34 degrees with wind gusts as high as 29 miles per hour.
“That’s just the way it is,” said Hempfield, the longtime parade organizer and former member of the Ohio Air National Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing. “If it was 30 years ago, we could likely still do it. At this age, not so much.”
Instead, a program has been planned at AMVETS Post 26, 1100 W. Fourth St. The public is welcome to attend the event, which will start at 11 a.m., Hempfield said.
The parade had been scheduled to start at the five-way light at Marion Avenue and Park Avenue West at 10:30 and proceed to Central Park with a program at the gazebo.
Instead, the event inside the AMVETS will still feature U.S. Navy veteran Charles Kvochick, who had been scheduled to speak at the gazebo ceremony.
Kvochick served 13 years in the military, including eight years on active duty and five in the U.S. Naval Reserce.
During his time in the fleet, Kvochick served on board the USS Tattnal, a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile destroyer based out of Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla.
His active duty career also included work at the Navy Ships Parts Control Center in
Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Kvochick then served five years with the U.S. Naval Reserve Mobile Construction Battalion (RNMCB-20), a Seabee unit stationed at Rickenbacker Air Station in Columbus.
He ended his military as an E-6, a petty officer 1st Class. His individual military awards include the Good Conduct Medal, Navy Achievement Medal and the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist insignia.
The ESWS designation is for U.S. Navy enlisted personnel who have demonstrated a high level of expertise in surface ship operations.
Kvochick is a life member of AMVETS Post 43, a 29-year member of American Legion Post 535 is and also a member of the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 535.
He retired in May 2013 after 30 years with the City of Mansfield, where he worked as a 9-1-1 operations supervisor and police dispatcher, data analyst, IT manager and utility collections manager.
