The parade at next week’s presidential inauguration is scheduled to feature a nonprofit based in Clarendon.
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, known as TAPS, was selected to participate in the parade to be held down Pennsylvania Avenue next Monday, Jan. 20. The organization works to support families of fallen service members.
Participating in the parade provides an “incredible opportunity for TAPS to raise awareness about our mission,” the organization’s founder, Bonnie Carroll, told ARLnow.
“By being part of the parade, we hope to remind the nation of the enduring sacrifices of those who served and the strength of the families they left behind,” she said.
The organization’s first appearance in the inaugural parade came in 2017. As with the 2017 parade, the TAPS contingent of 2025 will include 200 Gold Star families, including widows/widowers, parents, children and siblings who have lost loved ones in every military branch.
TAPS will be among 39 groups from 23 states represented in the parade, a spokesperson for the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee told ARLnow.
Carroll told ARLnow her organization applied to participate in the 2025 parade in advance of the 2024 election.
“We believe it is essential to ensure the families of the fallen, who are the living legacies of service and sacrifice, are included in this significant event,” she said. “Our participation underscores the importance of honoring the sacrifices of our military heroes and their loved ones.”
Carroll established TAPS in 1994, two years after her husband — Army Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll — and seven other military personnel were killed in a plane crash. The crash occurred in Alaska, where Tom Carroll headed the state’s Army National Guard.
It was a horrific twist of fate, as Gen. Carroll’s father, a major general then adjutant general of Alaska’s National Guard, had been among four military personnel killed in a 1964 plane crash while surveying damage from the massive 9.2 earthquake that struck the state a month before.
Since its founding, TAPS has grown to provide a 24/7 helpline to those in need of support, as well as comprehensive casework-assistance services and community-based programming.
For her work leading the organization, Carroll — a retired major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve — received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015.
The inaugural-parade route runs 1.5 miles from the U.S. Capitol west to the White House. It will begin after conclusion of a congressional luncheon for the new president and vice president, and likely wrap up around sundown.
Inaugural parades date back to the very beginnings of the presidency.
In 1789, a contingent of 500 military personnel accompanied George Washington to his swearing-in ceremony in New York City. Beginning in 1841 with William Henry Harrison, it became standard for the parade to occur immediately after the inauguration, rather than preceding it.
