A graduate of West Point will lead the 43rd Annual Miami Lakes Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 6.
William “Bill” Knickerbocker, 75, was chosen by the town’s Veterans Committee to be this year’s grand marshal.
“I am humbled, to be quite honest,” Knickerbocker said. “It’s an honor to serve and an honor to be the grand marshal.”
Knickerbocker is a 1969 graduate of the military academy and served a decade in the U.S. Army, in Vietnam and Thailand.
Promoted to the rank of major, he said he then served eight years in the 11th Special Forces Group in the U.S. Army Reserve in Fort Meade, Md.
In 1997, he moved to The Moors community, where he still resides. He has three children and six grandchildren.
Knickerbocker worked in research and advised the director of intelligence at the U.S. Southern Command in Doral.
A posting in Brussels with NATO as a U.S. technical expert in communications and electronics followed.
He ended his military career in Washington, D.C., working with the U.S. intelligence community for multiple agencies.
While at SouthCom, Knickerbocker volunteered with the Sea Scouts and the Boy Scouts and said he is an Eagle Scout.
Since retiring in 2013, he volunteers with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary as a safe boating instructor, is a member of the town’s Veterans Committee, American Legion Post 144 and the [U.S. Army] Special Forces Association.
A firearms instructor, he teaches and competes with the Defensive Shooters Fellowship of West Broward.
On Sunday, Nov. 6 he’ll lead 3,000 parade participants who at 10 a.m. will step off from Bull Run Road at Northwest 67th Avenue.
Veterans, active members of the military, school marching bands, clubs and elected officials will travel south until Eagle Nest Lane. They’ll turn northeast to Main Street for a ceremony at town hall.
Spectators are asked to wear red, white and blue and bring flags to salute the marchers in the longest-running veterans parade in Miami-Dade County.