Charlotte area towns celebrate Veterans Day with parades, breakfast

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Veterans Day is Sunday with a federal holiday on Monday, but the celebration is all weekend long.

It started Saturday in Charlotte.

Thousands of people lined the streets in uptown for the Salute to Veterans Parade.

This Veterans Day, the special story of a father and a son that spans two wars and a hundred years. 

"A 2:00 in the mornings, when you wake up in a cold sweat and your heart's running 130 beats a minute. And it's waking up from something you experienced, you saw that you can't unsee," JC Stanton said. 

The battles they fought even after those wars that teach us the true meaning of service and sacrifice. 

Be sure to tune in for Channel 9's Mark Becker's special report, Monday night at 6 on Eyewitness News. 

Bands marched while former soldiers paraded through the streets.

"No matter, whether we are Army, Marine Core, or Navy, we are all one and we come together and we are just one big force," Gary Lee from the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Around the same time, veterans in Fort Mill came together for a meal.

The city held its Veterans Day Breakfast.

Congressman Ralph Norman was there speaking to veterans.

"It's a time for families to remember their fathers, grandfather, uncles. So, it's pretty special day so veterans are what has kept this country safe," Norman said.

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