May 27—”Do it again!” A group of United States submarine veterans honked the horn as they drove past a family perched on camping chairs on San Pedro.

The family watched and heard booted feet march, classic cars cruise and motorcycles purr at the Monday Memorial Day Parade, which stretched from the USS Bullhead Memorial Park to the New Mexico Veterans Memorial.

One boy asked for an earsplitting encore, and the group happily obliged.

It was a day that was sometimes somber, sometimes celebratory. Peace activists, government officials, volunteers and of course, veterans of all ages and backgrounds, gathered at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial Monday morning to mark the holiday.

Monday also marked the unveiling of a war correspondents memorial, located near the Veterans Memorial Visitor’s Center. The exhibit highlights the achievements of journalists with New Mexico ties, including Bill Mauldin and Ernie Pyle. Pyle, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, bought a home in Albuquerque in the 1940s, which is now a public library. Mauldin, an award-winning cartoonist, was originally from New Mexico and later moved back to the state.

Tina Reames, the architect of record for the war correspondents memorial, said she has been working on the New Mexico Veterans Memorial as a whole since she started as an intern for CSR Architects in the ’90s.

The immersive memorial, a $250,000 project funded through state grants, is like walking through a newspaper, Reames said. Newspaper pages and typewriter keys are motifs; the colors were chosen to represent each branch of the military. Photos and cartoons are displayed like massive newspaper printing plates.

“Everything out here has a little bit of symbolism,” Reames said.

Memorial Day is the best time to see the roses, planted to honor veterans, she said.

One of the visitors to the new memorial was Maureen Manring. She was visiting a newly installed plaque honoring her father for the first time. The Vietnam War veteran died of cancer a few years after reconnecting with his adult daughters.

Manring said she knew little about his time in the military as a kid.

“The more I learn about his career, the more amazed I am at who he was as an individual,” Manring said.

Manring said she volunteers at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial as often as her work schedule will allow. She toted a cooler full of Golden Pride breakfast burritos to feed her family. Manring said she grew up in the neighborhoods around the memorial.

“It’s nice to see this kind of gathering in this part of town,” Manring said.

Steph Patten, with the Bataan Chapter of the American Veterans for Equal Rights, said this year’s parade was particularly exciting.

“This is really something,” Patten said.

The local AVER chapter, a branch of the national LGBTQ+ veterans service organization, has a busy schedule coming up, Patten said, with Memorial Day and upcoming Pride events around the state. Patten pointed out a memorial stone dedicated to everyone who has had to “serve in silence,” whether it be LGBTQ+ service people, women or others. It’s just one of a handful around the country.

Showing up to Memorial Day and other veterans events is important, Patten said, to educate people about the group.

“It’s very important to let people know we have been — we’ll always be — a part of our nation’s military,” Patten said.

Vietnam-era veteran Penn Baker, also with AVER, said only recently has their service been thanked at a military parade.

“To march in the military parade as a member of the community, it’s such an honor,” Baker said. “It’s emotional every time.”

Ted Trujillo was waiting to welcome in the parade at the entrance to the memorial. Trujillo said on Memorial Day, it’s hard not to think of the other people he served with, as well as other veterans who are struggling.

“I feel the loss of my brothers,” Trujillo said. “I really feel bad for the ones who are homeless.”

Originally stationed in Germany, Trujillo volunteered to go to Vietnam — a decision that confounded his family at the time.

“I said, ‘You can get killed crossing the street,'” Trujillo said. “When the Lord calls you, he calls you.”