250 Years of the Army
The Army kicked off its 250th birthday celebration at the 136th Tournament of Roses Parade, where its “This We’ll Defend: 250 Years of Service” float highlighting various eras of Army history rolled through Pasadena.
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By Earl Heath
The Army kicked off its 250th birthday celebration at the 136th Tournament of Roses Parade, where its “This We’ll Defend: 250 Years of Service” float highlighting various eras of Army history rolled through Pasadena.
Ushering in the modern era of the Army and riding on the float were Staff Sgt. Joseph Murtaugh and Staff Sgt. Daisy Balbuena as well as several of the Army’s soldier athletes, such as Army Capt. Sammy Sullivan.
The float symbolized a major event during the 250 years of the US Army.
The oldest horse unit in the United States, the Horse Cavalry Detachment has participated in the Tournament of the Roses nearly every year since 1996. They led the float down Colorado Blvd.
Those represented on the float include:
1775 – Gen. George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States
1778 – Molly Pitcher, a nickname given to Mary Ludwig Hays for her bravery and commitment to delivering water to Soldiers on the battlefield during the Revolutionary War
1861 – Col. Robert Shaw, abolitionist and commander of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the Army’s first African American regiment
1898 – Maj. Walter Reed, a member of the Army Medical Corps whose work in epidemiology and pathology developed critical preventative measures for yellow fever
1918 – Pfc. Joseph Oklahombi, one of 19 Choctaw Soldiers who used their native language as a code to securely pass information during World War I
1941 – Charles “Chief” Anderson, Tuskegee Airmen Ground Commander who trained 1,000 Airmen who flew over 15,000 missions and earned 3 Distinguished Unit Citations, 8 Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze Stars, and 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses
1965 – Lt. Col. Harold “Hal” Moore Jr., whose experiences in Vietnam inspired his novel-turned-film “We Were Soldiers Once and Young,” and is the namesake of Fort Moore in Georgia (retired as lieutenant general)
2007 – Staff Sgt. Joseph Murtaugh, who served on 11 combat deployments and saved the life of an 8-year-old girl in Iraq with a life-threatening heart defect that set the stage for an Army program that connects charities and corporations to children’s health cases (retired as a master sergeant)
2025 – Staff Sgt. Daisy Balbuena, a first-generation American, native Californian, and unmanned aircraft systems operator whose passion for STEM embodies the Army’s bright future and continued modernization