(BIVN) – Hawaii Island is gearing up for its 2017 Veterans Day Parade.

Retired Col. Debra Lewis recently testified before the Hawaii County Council in support of two contingency relief fund grants to support the parade, which is scheduled for Saturday, November 4th.

This year, the Grand Marshal for the parade will honor all Vietnam Era Veterans (Service Period 1959-1975)

Also, the Community Parade Marshal will be the Daughters of the American Revolution Hawai‘i Loa Chapter, and the Business Parade Marshal will be HPM Building Supply.

The decision to honor Vietnam Era Veterans follows the conclusion of the Public Broadcasting Corporation’s Vietnam War series by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick.

The 10-part documentary could be seen on PBS Hawaii, and to accompany the special presentation, several local videos were produced. One featured the heroic actions of John Kuulei Kauhaihao, First Lieutenant from Honaunau in South Kona. His wife Shirley participated in a touching interview.

https://youtu.be/DjjrUjvNi-E

Decades after Vietnam, the war drums beat on.

Pohakuloa on Hawaii Island is a center in the Pacific for U.S. military training. Video footage was recently recorded during the Exercise Bougainville II and released by the U.S. Marines featuring an interview with U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Evan Ota – a native Hawaiian from Kona. He is now Operations Officer for 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.