Daughters pay special tribute to father at Veterans Day Parade

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (KGO) -- Veterans Day is a day when many dig deep into their closets and most certainly, their memories.

"This is my battle buddy and this is my best friend's son," said Thomas Burford of Marin County, pointing to pictures he brought with him to the Veteran Day Parade in San Rafael.

He is one of millions for whom this day, the less mournful of America's two military holidays, is a day to honor all who served.

Marin County had a flyover of three World War II vintage P51 Mustangs.

"We were standing at home and heard the planes flying over, and we said, we gotta go right now (to the parade)," said Marlise Brough.

For Brough and her sisters Terrisa Wood and Denise Brown, the timing could not have been more appropriate. They had returned to Marin County this week for their father, John Brown, a Marin County resident who lived here for more than 60 years.

"He stormed the beaches of Omaha on D-Day and then went straight from there to the Battle of the Bulge," said one of Brown's daughters.

Just yesterday, at 94 years old, John Brown passed away, which is all the more reason for these daughters to be at this year's parade - to pay tribute to their father.

"He was here every year. Came down even when he wasn't feeling very well, getting up in age, he came every year" said Brough.

It was a dignified ceremony held near the veterans memorial statues in one of America's richest counties - a place so different and yet so very much the same, in honoring heroes on Veterans Day.

"It is the ones you don't expect who become our heroes. That is why they are special," said Burford.