Army M1 Abrams tanks roll down Constitution Avenue in front of President Donald Trump and others on the main viewing stand for the service’s 250th birthday parade in Washington on June 14, 2025. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Army’s parade and festival last month to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the service in the nation’s capital cost $30 million, a spokesman said Tuesday.
“We conducted the parade for a very specific reason because we saw it as our opportunity to introduce or to continue introducing America’s Army to the American people. We wanted Americans to feel connected to their Army,” service spokesman Steve Warren told reporters at the Pentagon.
For the parade, the Army had about 6,700 troops from every service division, 150 vehicles and more than 50 aircraft. The cost for the parade and other events was estimated to be between $25 and $45 million, including an estimated $16 million to repair streets and other damage to the city following the event, NBC News reported at the time.
The Army took preparations to protect roads, including placing steel plates on the parade route where tanks would have to turn sharply and fitting vehicles with new track pads.
The parade caused minimal damage to streets in Washington, Warren said. The service spent $3 million on steel plates. The plates had to be secured with six-inch spikes into the asphalt that left holes in the ground that the Army refilled.
The only additional damage Warren said was a curb that was crushed by a tank near the staging area where vehicles were kept. He did not have a cost for the curb.
“The only check that I’m aware of that we had to write was to repair that curb,” he added.
The Army’s anniversary celebration June 14 was the same day as President Donald Trump’s birthday. Estimates showed about 198,000 people passed through metal detectors to attend the events, according to Secret Service data. But because there were separate checkpoints for the festival and the parade, it is not clear if people who attended both were counted twice. Leading up to the event, the Army estimated 200,000 would attend.
Though the service does not know how many people decided to join the Army because of the celebration, the service has seen an increase in website traffic and social media performance since the parade, Warren said.
“While we have no scientific way to back it up, I think instinct tells us that increase in interest, some of that translated to an increase in joining,” he said.
