When the committee behind St. Tammany’s first-ever Veterans Day Parade needed help getting the event off the ground, they knew just where to turn.

Sharon deBouchel had recently retired from 24 years with the Navy Reserve. She was going through “withdrawal pains” when her old friend, Chuck Sabadie, contacted her about attending a meeting of Veterans Celebrate Freedom, the organization staging the Nov. 9 event.

“I’m an old sea salt,” said deBouchel, who served 24 years in the reserves, first as an aviation electronics specialist and then as a chief petty officer. “Chuck knows I’m good at getting things organized and getting straight to the point.”

Sharon deBouchel

The pair has worked together on several events, such as the Fais-Do-Do fundraiser at St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church. With several members of the military in her immediate family, including her father, who served on the U.S.S. Lexington in World War II, she also knew how important it was to honor those men and women.

She attended her first meeting in August, and before she knew it she was recruited as parade captain. Within a few short months, as the different veteran’s groups came on board, she had the parade lineup well in hand.

“We’ve got about 36 units, from the American Legion posts to the Molly Marines (the women’s U.S. Marine Corps organization), and JROTC groups from several high schools,” she said. “I can’t take any credit, I’m just the person that gets them ready to roll.”

The well of patriotism runs deep for deBouchel. As band director at Little Oak Middle School in Slidell, she dons her Navy uniform to take part in Veteran’s Day programs and has written her own arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner.” She came to Slidell after working with private schools in New Orleans and will mark her 33rd year as a teacher.

While she wants her students to practice hard to learn their instrument, deBouchel feels there are other aspects to the process that are more important.

“I want them to learn discipline, respect and responsibility, because those are the things that will get you through life,” she said. “If they learn to play music, too, that’s like lagniappe.”

She plans to stay with the school system for at least three more years, after which she plans to devote more time to volunteer projects with groups such as STARC and Habitat for Humanity. She’s also committed to Veterans Celebrate Freedom for another three years, to help “get the kinks worked out,” before possibly turning the parade over to one of the veteran’s organizations.

The inaugural parade will roll at 1 p.m. from Slidell High School and make its way to Salmen High School. It will honor World War II veterans, which the country is losing at an alarming rate, deBouchel said. She has enjoyed working on an event that will pay tribute to those who gave so much.

“The vets that are participating, they’ve just been so appreciative,” she said. “They don’t realize, we’re the ones who appreciate their sacrifice.”