U.S. Army celebrates 250th anniversary at Independence Mall with a day filled with festivities
But it was nothing like the extravagant affair planned in Washington to honor the Army on what was President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.
On the same grounds in Philadelphia where the United States declared its sovereignty from British rule more than two centuries ago, the Army defending that independence celebrated its 250th anniversary Saturday.
The relatively small gathering (estimated at about 500 over the course of the day) contrasted starkly with the confluence of thousands of people less than a mile away marching on the Parkway in opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies in what was dubbed the “No Kings” protest.
At Independence Mall, veterans from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars, active U.S. Army generals, and local city officials, including Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, led multiple festivities, capped off with an Army band concert in the evening.
“From Valley Forge to battlefields across the globe for 250 years, the courage of the United States Army has safeguarded the ideals that were born here, and for that, U.S. Army, we honor you,” Parker told attendees.
On June 14, 1775, only a couple of months after the onset of the Revolutionary War, one of the country’s first Army companies was established in Pennsylvania, alongside other British colonies, to make up the Continental Army — known today as the U.S. Army.
“Our Army was forged in revolution, tempered through wars, conflicts, peacetime missions, and refined by generations of leaders and soldiers. From Valley Forge to Gettysburg, from the beaches of Normandy to the streets of Baghdad, and places far away from home where Americans may not even know the names of those stories,” said Maj. Gen. John Pippy, a former state senator. “And we are all united by this one mission, this one oath, and this one great flag.”
The day started with a Stars and Stripes ceremony raising the American flag, hosted by actors portraying Betsy Ross and George Washington. From there, Parker, Pippy, and Patricia Coyne, of the Philadelphia Flag Day Association, regaled the audience with the Army’s legacy and the many festivities to come next year during the country’s Semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary.
A planned aerial parachute demonstration by the U.S. Military Special Operations Command Parachute Team, or “para-commandos,” was called off due to the inclement weather, which included a chilly drizzle. “Mother Nature didn’t comply today,” Sgt. First Class Stephen Travers explained.
“The Army and its creation 250 years ago is the reason why we are the nation we are now. I think it’s the building blocks to our freedom,” said Travers, who has served for the last 17 years.
Soon afterward, a procession of service members marched from Arch Street south to Independence Mall, where four cakes waited to be cut. Gen. James J. Mingus, the Army’s second-highest-ranking officer, cut through his cake with a swift chop of his ceremonial Army sword that made a booming thwump when it hit the table. Other veterans tasked with cutting cakes took a more measured approach.
In the late afternoon, 250 of the next generation of Army soldiers were sworn in in front of the crowd.
Philadelphian Walter Shirley could relate. He enlisted in the Army at 23 years old in 1963 when he was looking to serve his country. He was stationed throughout Germany for much of his 20s and 30s. When Philadelphians in the armed forces run into each other, Shirley said, they have one another’s back.
“We all seem to stick together when we find out we’re from Philly. When I was in Schweinfurt, we had a long bench table set up, and we called it ‘The Odd Squad,’” Shirley said. “Everybody there was either from New Jersey or Philadelphia, all different ranks, it didn’t matter to us at the time. We sat at the same table, we had a good time.”
The Philadelphia area also plays an important role in the long history of Black Americans fighting in the Army for the United States. Camp William Penn, which was located in LaMott, Cheltenham Township, was the first facility to train the Union Army’s United States Colored Troops.
Many of the soldiers trained at Camp William Penn went on to participate in the emancipation of more than 250,000 enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865 — a moment enshrined in U.S. history as Juneteenth.
As Philadelphia’s Army celebration was winding down Saturday, a more lavish affair was about to begin in Washington, where Trump was to preside over a military parade in honor of the Army’s 250th — on his 79th birthday.
That event, with an estimated price of $45 million, was to feature 28 M1 Abrams tanks, among other armored vehicles and artillery. At the Philly party, there was a single M777 howitzer artillery piece.