The Gettysburg Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony are presented by The Gettysburg Joint Veterans Memorial Day Commission

Honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice at the 158th Memorial Day parade and ceremony in Gettysburg. Presented by Gettysburg Joint Veterans Memorial Day Commission the Parade is scheduled for Monday, May 26th, 2025 @ 2pm.

This year’s Grand Marshall for the 158th Gettysburg Memorial Day Parade Diana Henry, Commandant of the Marine Corp League for the State of Pennsylvania.
Diana was born and raised in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She enlisted in the Marine Corps delayed entry program the summer of her junior year of high school and shipped to Parris Island in the fall of 1984 after graduation. After boot camp, she attended Basic Electricity and Electronics School and Aircraft Electrical School in Millington, Tennessee, before attending her C130 training school in El Toro, California. All to prepare to be an Aviation Electrician on C130’s stationed at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. After 4 years in the Marine Corps, Diana returned to Gettysburg where she attended York Technical Institute and earned an Associates Degree in Electronics. Upon graduation, she was hired by industrial automation company, Red Lion Controls as a Technical Writer, where she remained for 32 years.
While employed at Red Lion, in 1995 Diana joined the Marine Corp League Gettysburg Battlefield Detachment. During her time with the detachment, she served in many officer positions to include Adjutant, Commandant, and Paymaster. Seven years ago, she began her journey of offices at a state level, holding the offices of Jr. Vice, Sr. Vice and is currently finishing her second year as Commandant for the state of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Robert J. Dalessandro will be the Keynote Speaker at the ceremony following the parade. Mr. Dalessandro is Acting Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Robert “Rob” Dalessandro is an American historian and author who has written and presented extensively on the American Expeditionary Forces contributions during the First World War.
Dalessandro is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army and the Deputy Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission. He is former Director of the United States Army Center of Military History at Fort Lesley J McNair, Washington, D.C. He frequently leads battlefield tours to sites in the United States, France and Italy.
Dalessandro graduated from the Virginia Military Institute with a degree in History in 1980. His graduated Studies included work at the College of William and Mary, the U.S. Army War College and George Washington University. He holds Masters of Arts degrees in History, Strategic Studies, and Museum Science.
Dalessandro has had a vide variety of Army leadership and staff assignments including time as a platoon leader, command at company, depot and battalion level and staff assignments at echelons of command ranging from battalion through Department of the Army level.
He formally served as the Chairman of the United States World War One Centennial Commission. He assumed those duties following the death of former Congressman Ike Skelton. He was appointed to the commissions by the House Minority Leader, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California.
Dalessandro is widely published on the lifeways and material culture of the American Soldier in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. He is co-author of the Organization and Insignia of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1923, editor of the Army Officer’s guide, co-author of Willing Patriots: Men of Color in the First World War, Contributions of African American Soldiers and the American Lions: the 332nd Infantry Regiment in Italy in World War I, Over There: America in the Great War, and editor of World War I Remembered, the official National Park Service History of World War One.
His Book, Organization and Insignia of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1917-1923 received the Army Historical Foundation award for excellence in writing.