VA Whistleblower Preps $100,000 Parade For Special 30th Anniversary of Phoenix Veterans Day

Paula Pedene has succeeded in multiple military-related spheres, be it as a U.S. Navy broadcast journalist, television news anchor, or as a renowned Department of Veterans Affairs whistleblower. But her three-decade journey overseeing the Phoenix Veterans Day Parade is hard to top.

This year’s event in Arizona is special for a couple of reasons. Not only is it taking place during the United States’ 250th birthday, it is also the 30th year of veterans galvanizing with the public to honor those who serve.

Taking place on Nov. 11 and put on by the organization Honoring America’s Veterans, the annual event over the years has included more than 1.5 million spectators and participants, recognized over 600,000 veterans, and reached a statewide population surpassing 75 million people.

This year’s event is scheduled to include the following:

• 100-year-old World War II veteran Delmar DeWitt Beard, who served in the Pacific during the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
• Super Bowl champion quarterback Jim McMahon, formerly of the Chicago Bears, who will serve as celebrity grand marshal.
• Steve Langen, whose son, Marine Sgt. Alec Langen, was killed in a 2024 military helicopter crash.
• Seven veteran grand marshals, representing military service from World War II through the post-9/11 era.

Approximately 45,000 spectators are expected to attend. This year’s theme is “250 Years of Freedom, 30 Years of Honor.”

Pedene spoke to Military.com about her history involving the military and veterans.

How the Parade Initially Began

Pedene coordinates the nonprofit organization’s parade for the event instituted under the VA banner in 1997. All these years later, the executive director along with her team of partners, veterans groups and volunteers create a memorable event that combines patriotism and a sense of community.

She described how it was initially aimed to raise money and awareness for a small group of VA employees. Slowly, it morphed from a tiny event that included some VSOs and planners to meeting the raised expectations of the city of Phoenix.

“I go to my boss in our weekly meeting, and he looks at me and says, ‘The parade has got to be better next year,'” she recalled. “There’s just times when you know you just need to say, ‘Yes, sir, yes, ma’am,’ and move on and get it done. And that was one of those times.

“Even though it wasn’t my parade—it was their parade—I just said ‘yes sir’ and went and got with the city of Phoenix. They helped us put on the event, and they taught me how to build a parade and create it.”

Legacy as a VA Whistleblower

For Pedene, she has seen the glee of the veterans but also the internal workings of a system that in the past treated them improperly.

She, too, was treated in a similar vein after she and colleagues—including former Phoenix VA doctor Sam Foote—in 2010 uncovered budget mismanagement totaling some $11 million, as well as a hostile work environment that at the time was reported to the VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and supported by the watchdog. That led to the voluntary retirement of the hospital’s director.

“Nobody wants to sign up to be a whistleblower,” she said. “It just kind of happens, and that’s what happened to me. I was a public affairs officer. We ran a fabulous program. We won national awards. I had students that would write case studies on the work that we were doing because it was all about the veterans. It was all about getting them the information they needed.”

Happiness was in abundance and morale was good. That was, however, until a boss she “adored” and was a Vietnman veteran retired. New management flipped morale on its head, Pedene said, and “treated the staff like crap.”

When I saw the morale declining, it just really bothered me.

Then came the retaliation. Pedene was targeted by VA higher-ups who used her as an example, targeting her with not only several meritless retaliatory investigations but even criminal charges.

She lost her position, title and job duties, eventually leading to her being relegated to the basement of the VA facility—even after hiring multiple lawyers, enduring multiple “kangaroo courts,” filing Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, requests, and garnering support from House Veteran Affairs Committee members.

She was featured in a 2014 Washington Post story as a 20-plus year VA employee banished to the library, excited just to get to go upstairs and make copies and see humanity.

But Pedene maintained her composure in more ways than one, not letting the poor environment or stripped job titles minimize her intentions to seek the truth.

Having time to herself in a basement for about two years allowed her to find a treasure trove of information, from patient wait list falsification, excessive delays in patient care, false vesting of patients, failure to reassign patients after provider departures, and other inappropriate leadership decisions.

While the OIG and Office of the Medical Inspector never moved forward with her complaints, she took the situation into her own hands. She collaborated with other whistleblowers, the House Veterans Affairs Committee at the time, and the media to expose what is now known as the Phoenix VA Wait Time Scandal.

Pedene, a self-described woman of faith, looks back now with pride. Admittedly, the toil of that experience weighed heavily on her.

“It was very difficult, so difficult for me, my family, my kids,” she said. “I was no longer the public affairs officer. I was the banished public affairs officer, and it was just really hard. I got depression, I was kind of absent from my family, and my husband’s blood pressure went through the roof, and we lost a lot of money. You never really get it back, you know.

“You lose a large part of your life, and I’m luckier than most. I won. I got a settlement. I got a new job. And I really took the time I needed to heal. I had saved up so much leave, and I’m like, I’m using this. I just took weeks off at a time because I was so beat up. It’s a lot every day to go from really being in the center of things, to doing nothing.”

When asked in the present if she would go back and do it again, she says she would. The only difference would be how she handled the entire situation. She discussed the entire ordeal in her book Sacred Duty.

Building Up the Phoenix Veterans Day Parade

Pedene made it her mission to give veterans in the Phoenix area something to celebrate.

After being pushed to put on a bigger and better parade, amid the turmoil of her professional endeavors, she obtained help from the city on how to create and build such an event from the ground up. That effort drew some 90 entrants and 10,000 people in the streets—a far cry from the 10 observers a year earlier.

With time came more money, resources, floats, balloons, you name it. While it was technically the VA’s parade from 1997 to 2012, Pedene eventually “went underground” and took on the responsibility as her own.

In 2013, they had a parade but had to adjust the route. But it was a big hit that launched the nonprofit Honoring America’s Veterans into what it is today. It costs about $100,000 annually to put on, and 30 years in the community still adores it.

“The best thing about the parade is how it heals our nation’s veterans,” she said. “Those who never got the ‘thank yous,’ the Korean War veterans, the Vietnam veterans. There’s tears in their eyes when they come to that parade.

“We’ve had some of the younger vets that have had issues in service, and they’re in the parade, or they go to the parade and just feel the love and the respect and the kindness and the grace, and it encourages them, it gives them hope.”

She reminds us that there’s more than one way to help a wounded veteran. Parades and recognition are one method, but so are honor flights or rucksacks. Pedene thinks about the veterans across the globe who are waiting for a helping hand, even if others don’t know they need one.

“They’re all important to help our veterans heal and to help the community remember that every day, at every moment, at every second, there is someone around the globe that is someplace right now defending our freedom,” she said. “And to me, that matters.”

For more information on this year’s event, visit the parade website.