For 2012, the club decided to do things a little different to commemorate Memorial Day.   As always, individuals were encouraged to support their local parades or ceremonies, but this year the group decided to pick one parade in particular to combine our efforts and have the most effect.   The parade that was chosen was for the village of Milford, which is a small town just 40 miles northwest of Detroit.   Milford has held a Memorial Day parade for over 100 years, and for the last 17 years, it has been directed for the Village and American Legion Post 216 by Joe Salvia.   Besides being an Army veteran, Joe is the former commander of Milford Post No. 216, and currently serves as post commander of Huron Valley AMVET Post No. 2006. The parade started off at the Oldenburg VFW Post 216 on Commerce Rd. and went down Main Street, ending at the War Memorial in Central Park, where a brief ceremony was held to honor those that gave their life to serve our country.   At the ceremony, Operation Desert Shield/Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran Brigadier General Michael A. Stone, who is currently assistant adjutant general of installations for the Michigan Army National Guard, gave a speech.   Besides the typical marching bands and classic cars, the parade featured several aircraft fly-overs, including a couple of A-10 Warthogs and a group of 6 T-6 trainers.   This event is very popular with the locals, and some say it is because of what the parade doesn't have, namely clowns and politicians. This is the first year that the AoD has done this parade as a group, and we had nine vehicles participate.   Leading the group with his 1942 Harley Davidson WLC and 1942 Willys MB Jeep, (driven by Rich Pilon), was John Lind.   Phil Hagen also brought his Jeep, and rounding out the lighter vehicles was Ed & Sue P. with their 1942 Cadillac Staff Car.   Next came Keith Nattrass and family with their White M3A1 Scout car, and Rob Reigle and family with a DUWK.   Larger still, we had Dave McConnell with his 1971 A.M. General M35A2, Dave Oheim and his M932 tractor, and newcomer Paul Pappas with his M817 5-ton. The weather was perfect, if not a little hot, and the crowd was excited and very up beat.   While everyone was waiting for the parade to start, the AoD brought their vehicles to the center of Main Street and parked them so the public could walk around them and get a closer look, as John Lind described each vehicle.   The people really seemed to enjoy this, and took the opportunity to inspect all the vehicles and talk to the owners.   Soon it was time to mount up and move the vehicles to their place in the parade line-up.   Joe Salvia estimated that around 600 to 800 veterans marched through downtown Milford for the Memorial Day Parade, and he is very happy to see how this parade has grown into a major event that draws over 15,000 people.