MISSION VIEJO : Green and Marines to Highlight Parade

With the country at war just a few short weeks ago, organizers of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade wanted to honor the troops by asking members of a few local Marine families to serve as parade grand marshals.

Pleased by the invitation, four families accepted. But now the war is over, the Marines are coming home, and parade organizers are making a little more room in the antique flatbed bus--yellow, of course--carrying the grand marshals.

At least two Marines will be joining their families Saturday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day before an estimated 20,000 parade-goers. The 21st annual parade will start at noon at the corner of Marguerite Parkway and Olympiad Road.

“It’s absolutely fantastic,” chairwoman Dorothy Huber said. “We were keeping our fingers crossed, hoping that some of them would come home before Saturday.”

Capt. Juergen Lukas and Maj. Jim Brinkman of the Marine Fight Attack Squadron 314 based in El Toro arrived home Wednesday and have agreed to join the parade.

“I feel quite honored and privileged to do this,” said Lukas, whose squadron flew more than 1,000 sorties during the war. “I think it’s great that someone cared enough to invite us.”

Lukas and Brinkman will join their wives, Debbie Lukas and Lynda Brinkman. Sandy Loria, whose husband, Capt. Christopher Loria, is still overseas, will also be on the grand marshals’ bus, said Carolyn Knutzen, whose husband is still in the Gulf. The children of all four couples will also attend.

“We never really dreamed it would be this way, that they would be coming home so soon,” said Knutzen, who is married to Maj. Robert Knutzen. “This will be a great way to have a reunion.”

Although the parade route is returning to Marguerite Parkway after an absence of two years, city officials say they don’t expect major traffic problems while the street is blocked.