Downtown Delaware turned red, white and blue on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 1, as thousands of people lined the streets for the annual Delaware Veterans Parade, an event recognized as the largest veterans parade in Ohio. The Delaware Source reported that this year’s parade reached capacity, with more than 200 units and approximately 1,900 participants taking part in the patriotic celebration of veterans, active-duty service members and military families.
The parade stepped off at 3 p.m. from the main gate of the Delaware County Fairgrounds, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Marchers traveled east on Pennsylvania Avenue, turned south on Sandusky Street and moved through downtown Delaware before concluding on Wilmer Street, just south of Ohio Wesleyan University — a route that takes the procession past the storefronts and street corners where Delaware residents gather every year for the occasion.
This year’s parade carried a particular meaning for the host community. The 2026 edition commemorated the 20th anniversary of the safe return of the U.S. Army Reserve 454th Rebuild Transportation Company, known as “Delaware’s Own,” from Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The unit deployed from Delaware in 2005 and returned home in November 2006, and its homecoming has remained a touchstone for the city’s veterans community ever since.
The scale of the event has grown steadily into a statewide distinction. In its preview of the parade, The Columbus Dispatch noted that more than 1,600 individuals and nearly 200 parade units were expected to participate, and that the parade has been recognized by an Ohio Senate citation as the largest veterans parade in Ohio. The Delaware Source reported that the finished event exceeded even those expectations, reaching capacity with more than 200 units and about 1,900 participants.
The day began before the first unit stepped off. Organizers held a Veterans Social and Expo at the Delaware County Fairgrounds earlier in the day, according to the Delaware Source, giving veterans and military families a place to gather, connect with services and visit before the parade formed up at the fairgrounds main gate.
The lineup itself reflected the breadth of the community that turns out to honor service. The annual parade included veterans, military honor guards, marching bands, floats, classic cars and motorcycles, according to The Columbus Dispatch — a mix that brings school bands and scout troops onto the same route as veterans organizations and Gold Star families.
For the people who build the parade each year, the emotion of the day is the point. Christina Lay, who helps organize the event, told The Columbus Dispatch she gets chills just thinking about the hundreds of people marching in the parade — a reaction shared by many along the route as Delaware’s Own and two decades of homecoming history were honored in the unit’s hometown.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the parade stepped off at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, from the Delaware County Fairgrounds, followed its traditional Pennsylvania Avenue and Sandusky Street route through downtown, and commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 454th Rebuild Transportation Company’s safe return from Iraq. The Delaware Source reported more than 200 units and approximately 1,900 participants, at capacity. What we are still waiting on: organizers’ final attendance estimates for the crowds along the route, which had not been published as of Sunday evening.
Delaware’s parade is one of the anchor events of the fall community calendar in central Ohio, arriving in the same season as the region’s holiday celebrations. Readers following central Ohio community events can also read our coverage of how the Columbus holiday season opens with new Clippers lights and returning favorites, and of the Columbus All Disabilities Fall Festival, another community gathering that drew families together this weekend.
What happens next: the parade’s honorees return to a month built around veterans. Veterans Day itself falls on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and Delaware County’s veterans organizations will mark it with ceremonies across the county. For Sunday, though, the message from the Sandusky Street sidewalks was simpler — a hometown that has not forgotten the company it sent to war twenty years ago, and that still shows up, by the thousands, to welcome it home.
Photo: Ben Turover, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons — North Sandusky Street in downtown Delaware, on the parade route.