This year’s theme is “Honoring America’s Veterans.”

The 1.5-mile parade will start at Fourth and Cherokee streets and follow a rectangle path before finishing up at Third and Cherokee streets.

Grand Marshals for this year’s parade are Richard Kiper and Louise Graul Eisenbrandt. Charles L. Shoemaker is being posthumously honored as a Grand Marshal.

Richard Kiper

Retired Army Lt. Col. Richard Kiper is a 1967 West Point graduate with extensive service in airborne, infantry and Special Forces units.

He commanded an infantry company in Vietnam, where he was wounded and later served with the 5th Special Forces Group. After earning a master’s degree in history from Rice University in Houston, he taught military history at West Point.

From 1984-87, he worked at the Pentagon on a major joint Army-Air Force project that helped secure $850 million to modernize Army Special Operations aviation, leading to the creation of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. He also played key roles in establishing Special Operations support and signal units and contributed to counterterrorism doctrine, qualifying as a HALO parachutist during this period.

Later, he taught at the Command and General Staff College, earned a doctorate from the University of Kansas, and authored multiple military history books. After retiring in 1993, he worked at the Army Counterinsurgency/Irregular Warfare Center. He has been married for 58 years and has four children and 12 grandchildren.

Louise Graul Eisenbrandt

Lou Graul grew up in a small Illinois town and joined the Army Reserve in 1967 while training as a nurse.

After earning her nursing degree in 1968, she was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to Fort Dix. In 1969, she was promoted to first lieutenant and deployed to Vietnam, where she served for a year at the 91st Evacuation Hospital in Chu Lai. There, she treated U.S. troops, South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, and enemy combatants, caring for severe combat injuries and illnesses. She was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for her service.

Her experiences are detailed in her first book, “Vietnam Nurse, Mending and Remembering,” which draws on her journals and photographs to depict combat nursing and daily life in Vietnam. Since 1970, she has returned to Vietnam four times, most recently in 2014.

For more than 50 years, Lou has shared her story with students, veterans, and community groups. She has served on nonprofit boards, worked in various professions, and pursued creative interests. She has lived with Parkinson’s disease for more than two decades, linked to Agent Orange exposure, and chronicled this journey in her second book, “Unsteady As She Goes: Battling Parkinson’s After Vietnam” (2022). Lou lives in Leawood with her husband, Jim, and has two children and two grandchildren.

Charles L. Shoemaker

Charles L. Shoemaker, Lansing, died on Dec. 6, 2025, at age 79 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Born in Leavenworth, he was a devoted husband, father, patriot and community leader. He was preceded in death by his wife, Roberta Shoemaker, and two sisters.

A proud U.S. Army veteran, Charles served from 1964-67 with tours in Vietnam and Germany and received the Vietnam Service Medal and National Defense Service Medal. He remained deeply committed to veterans’ causes throughout his life, holding numerous leadership roles within the VFW at the local, district, state, and regional levels.

Presentation of colors

The We-Ta-Se American Legion Post 410 Color Guard will present the colors.

WE-TA-SE in the Potawatomi Language means “one who is brave or brave warrior.”

The We-Ta-Se American Legion Post 410 was formed in 1989 to provide a proper “full” military burial for all the Prairie Band Potawatomi veterans on the Reservation and the honor guard for ‘We-Ta-Se’ is also available for any veteran’s family that requests a military burial in the immediate area.

The We-Ta-Se Color Guard performs at roughly 45 events annually. They have presented posting colors for pow-wows, parades, sporting events, various school functions and many other special events all over the state of Kansas and some functions nationwide.

Some of their most honorable events include:

• Color Guard at Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals games.

• Lori Piestewa National Memorial of the first Native American Woman killed in combat where the color guard had the Honor of leading in 28 other Native American Indian Color Guards.

• Color Guard for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial at eight separate events in Kansas and Missouri.

• Procession lead for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation at the opening of the National Museum of Native American Indians in Washington, D.C.

The Veterans Memorial Wall located at the Prairie People park was dedicated on Nov. 26, 2003, and has 375 tribal members names inscribed on the wall.

This represents about 12% of the adult population of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation who have served in the United States Armed forces.

Also included on the memorial wall are the nine tribal members who were killed in action and one tribal member who was a prisoner of war.