BULLHEAD CITY – The 1st Marine Division Association and Paul Walsh Veteran’s Day committee have announced this year’s Veteran’s Day Parade Grand Marshal. This year’s honoree is a 22-year veteran of the Unites States Navy, Senior Chief Donald W. Rice, EMCS USN. Senior Chief Rice was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts on June 16, 1927 and joined the Navy in May of 1945 when he was only 17. At the completion of his senior year in high school, he was sent to the newly built Sampson Navel Training Base on the east shore of Seneca Lake, New York. At this time, the Sampson Navel Training Base was discharging an average of 300 to 400 servicemen daily. Once Rice completed his training, he was sent to Seattle, Washington and from there he sent sail to Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Senior Chief Rice arrived there about six months after President Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb.
Senior Chief Rice’s next stop was Bikini Atoll, where he witnessed Operation Crossroads. Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Rice recalled visiting group zero and swimming in the lagoon just hours after the nuclear bomb detonations. Rice joked that he has never been sick and has lived a long 92 years with no side effects except that he glows in the dark.
Rice married his first wife in 1950 and had two children, a son and a daughter plus two stepsons. He went on to live with his family in Sasebo, Japan on a naval ship that was homeported 1954-1956. In 1956 the Rice family went on the spend a few years in San Diego, California before shipping out for a five year term in Hawaii, as Staff Command Service Force Pacific for cargo and supply ships for the United State Navy. The Rice family relocated in 1964 to Newport Rhode Island, where Rice taught electrical engineering at the Navy Destroyer School until he retired in 1967.
In 1967, he packed up his family and headed west to San Diego, California where he worked as an electrician on tugboats and Surfacecraft for the United States Navy until 1983.
Rice recalls purchasing his first piece of property in Bullhead City in 1974 on Lakeside and Ramar Road. He said that his son had built a very nice garage for him on that property and that had intended to retire there in 1983 but his wife had other plans. She told him that house was too small so they built a new house in Palo Verde Meadows. He jokingly said that was back when it was still called Riviera, not Bullhead City. Rice went on to teach lapidary and silversmithing at Mohave Community College and is dedicated to staying busy. Don loves to garden and eat healthy. He goes to the gym every morning and attributes a healthy lifestyle to his longevity.
Bullhead City salutes Senior Chief Donald W. Rice and thanks him for his years of service and honor.
The 1st Marine Division Association’s 11th Annual Paul Walsh Veteran’s Day Parade on Saturday, November 2, 2019 in Bullhead City, Arizona. The parade starts at the Riverview Mall parking lot at 10 a.m. and continues south down Miracle Mile, ending at Marble Canyon Drive. This year’s parade includes over 40 floats, from local civic organizations, business, schools and clubs. “The City is happy is assist with this amazingly patriotic event, it’s one of my favorite local events” said Superintendent of Parks and Recreation David Heath.
For more information about the 11th Annual Paul Walsh Veteran’s Day Parade, please contact Patsy Walsh at (928) 754-6247 or Debbie Hendren at dhendren@bullheadcity.com.
