January 24, 2012 | 8:57 AM | By

Grassroots Effort for Iraq War Vet Parade on Saturday (Video)

FILED UNDER: Iraq, Life in the Military, Veterans, War, "The Mission Continues", Craig Schneider, Iraq War, Iraq War parade, January 28 Group, Make January 28th Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day, St. Louis Missouri, welcome home parade

Facebook / January 28 Group

Craig Schneider started the January 28 Group over dinner with a few friends complaining about their jobs. Schneider realized that his on-the-job troubles were nothing compared to what servicemembers had to go through while fighting in Iraq. According to January28Group.org:

When our nation called our military professionals to work, they showed up to work a job where everything has to play out perfectly the first time, or people die. For nine years, so many of our sons and daughters and moms and dads and brothers and sisters carved big, extremely dangerous years out of their lives and served in the desert. Because as a nation, we asked them to.

Schneider and friends now have an ambitious goal – to organize and raise funds for a welcome home parade for Iraq War veterans in downtown St. Louis, where Schneider lives. It would be the first and only parade so far to welcome home the troops who served in Iraq. The January 28 Group has set up a Facebook page that now has more than 4,500 members in an effort to garner support for the parade.

St. Louis television station KSDK-TV has more on how you can get involved in the parade effort. Click here to watch.