“FORGET ME NOT” The annual Coronado Fourth of July Parade introduces Force-Con 2022, the inaugural 3-day superhero military convention and art festival involving action/adventure, animation, film, comics and literary works coming to San Diego and Coronado this September 23-25. In partnership with Army Week San Diego, Force-Con 2022 is expected to be the largest convention of its kind launching in Southern California.
Trailing the jeep will be a set of magnificent steel wings displayed with engraved dog tag feathers representing the 1,584 MIA Vietnam veterans. If you look closely, each engraved dog tag reveals the POW/MIA veteran’s name, place of capture or location last seen, place of birth and rank of service. The dog tags are much like the POW bracelets worn by concerned citizens and loved ones during the Vietnam War in remembrance of those captured. The POW/MIA steel wings displayed were welded by artisan Jay Stargaard and belong to the Purple Foxes United lead character, LT Williams.
The Coronado Fourth of July (CFOJ) Parade welcomes all patriots who love our country and our veterans to attend the traditional community event held on Coronado Island, Monday, July 4, 2022. The parade begins at 10:00 a.m. “The Coronado Fourth of July is proud to be a partner with Force-Con this year to bring praise and recognition to our American hero’s that fight for independence. The town of Coronado being a Navy town has the most patriotic parade this side of the Mississippi and proudly salute our past, present, and future military members,” expressed Todd Tanghe, President Coronado Fourth of July. Force-Con 2022 is inspired by the “Purple Foxes United” screenplay based on the Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA) from the Vietnam War era. The historical fiction story was created and written by Producer CJ Machado, the CEO/Founder of Force-Con. The animated tale involves female heroines that join together to save their brothers in arms held captive during the Vietnam War. The superhero characters highlighted in the project are based on our real-life heroes, our service members, and Honor Flight San Diego (HFSD) alumni veterans. Two of those HFSD distinguished patrons are WWII child POW Tom Crosby and Coronado’s Hometown Hero WWII paratrooper Tom Rice that you may recognize riding in an Army green vintage jeep during the Parade.
Tom Crosby 16 WWW.SanDiegoVeteransMagazine.com / JULY 2022
”The story was created to ignite a surge of patriotism, a duty of remembrance and the revival of the American Spirit that would inspire curiosity among our youth and instill a sense of deep gratitude and amazement toward our real-life superheroes and their service to country,” stated Producer CJ Machado. Force-Con 2022’s featured artist and U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Joe Pisano’s POW “Forget Me Not” artwork will also be visible at the rear of the jeep trailer and was selected as a significant tie in with the project.
