Spectators hold signs of support as a JOTRC group marches past during the 2011 Veteran's Day parade in downtown Bend. This year's parade is today.

An F-15 fighter jet will do a fly-by of gratitude over downtown Bend as it kicks off the city’s Veterans Day Parade at 11 a.m. today.

Heralded as being Oregon’s second-largest Veterans Day Parade, the event will feature a display of flags, more than 1,000 veterans who will travel the parade route, and a post-parade open house at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Northeast Bend.

“It’s a community event,” said parade organizer Rabbine Harpell, who owns Azura Studio in downtown Bend.

After the fly-over, parade participants will cross the Newport Avenue Bridge, also known as the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, where a local Boy Scout troop and the Central Oregon Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America will have displayed 250 flags bearing the names of fallen soldiers.

They will make a right turn onto Wall Street, head through downtown, then follow N.W. Franklin Avenue and N.W. Riverside Avenue to where the parade ends at the corner of N.W. Galveston Avenue and N.W. Harmon Blvd.

Harpell said the parade route will be closed to traffic from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. After the event, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1643 will hold a reception where members of the public can meet veterans from noon to 6 p.m. at its office on 1503 N.E. 4th St. in Bend.

Today’s event will be the second largest Veterans Day Parade in Oregon after the Albany Veterans Day Parade, which has more than 200 entrants each year and is billed as the largest Veterans Day celebration west of the Mississippi. But it certainly isn’t the only one happening in Central Oregon today.

Here’s a list of what else is out there:

• Madras: Parade starts at 2 p.m. at the corner of 10th and D Streets. This event will be the first Veterans Day parade Madras has had in about 30 years, parade organizer Mike Williams said.

• Prineville: Parade starts at 11 a.m. on the corner of Elm Street and Fourth Street.

• Redmond: Parade starts at 11 a.m. and will run down Sixth Street from Dogwood Avenue to Forest Avenue. It will be followed by a chili feed for veterans and their families from noon to 2 p.m. at VFW Post 4108’s office at 1836 S.W. Veterans Way.