Butler has many parades, but not like the one planned for Aug. 23.

It will start in Cranberry Township and finish at VA Butler Healthcare, moving at about 45 mph along its route.

It will include local law enforcement, three helicopters and hundreds of motorcycles.

The Butler County American Legion Riders will escort a pickup truck pulling a 24-foot trailer holding the American Veterans Traveling Tribute, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The replica is 360 feet long and nearly eight feet high, 80 percent of the size of the real thing. Volunteers from Butler Legion Riders will set up the exhibit the next morning.

Starting from Victory Family Church, 21150 Route 19, Cranberry Township, the parade will travel to a site behind VA Butler Healthcare where the replica wall will be on display behind the old VA hospital until Aug. 27.

Helen Parton Mildren of Chicora said the AVTT is the largest of the four mobile replicas of the memorial.

“For a year and a half now we've been soliciting funds. We've had some very generous donations,” she said.

Mildren, who is a member of the Butler Legion Riders Auxiliary and a member of American Legion Post 778 in Lyndora, will be ready with her motorcycle Aug. 23, as will her husband, a former Marine.

Jim Miller of Chicora, is the escort chairman for the group. He said he can't remember an escort this large before.

“(We're) shooting for 1,000 bikes,” he said.

“I feel it's important to show the veterans in Butler County that we are behind them and we appreciate the sacrifices they made,” Miller said.

He said that most, but not all, of the escort will be made up of veterans.

“It's probably going to stretch out for at least five miles I'm guessing. It's going to be once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Miller said.

Any motorcyclist is welcome, but for safety reasons, cars are not allowed to join the procession.

Miller said he wants people lining the streets all along the parade route “to show these guys they are not forgotten.”

“It's going to cause a lot of problems at that time of day, but please give these guys respect. Please have patience and give the bikes and the veterans respect,”said Miller.

“I'm not a veteran but I've learned so much by being around veterans,” he said. “We want to give these guys a showing like they've never seen before.”

Bill McNutt, a Vietnam veteran and chair of the fundraising and finance committee for AVTT, like many others locally, remembers loved ones lost during the war.

“I have three cousins on it who lost their lives over there. There's 43 veterans from Butler County that lost their lives in Vietnam,” McNutt said.

Posters about each of those soldiers will be in a tent at the site.

That information also will be in a booklet containing a schedule of events and recognition for the project donors.

Mildren said there were many more expenses than the $8,000 contract to bring the wall to Butler.

She said the Department of Veterans Affairs did not pay for this exhibit, but staff at VA Butler Healthcare were very receptive to providing space for the exhibit.

“We had to have a site excavated for it. There was no place big enough for it,” Mildren said.

Behind VA Butler Healthcare, crews removed a parking lot and sidewalks from the area, leveled the ground, paved pathways and planted grass. Flowers, trees and shrubs will be there for decoration.

“We had great companies volunteer to do a lot of the work out there,” Mildren said.

The exhibit will be open 24 hours a day from noon Aug. 24 to noon Aug. 27.

“It's open to everybody. Anybody can come,” McNutt said.

According to the National Park Service, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial includes the names of more than 58,000 servicemen and women who gave their lives in service in the Vietnam War.

Those names also appear on AVTT. If a visitor knows the name of a person killed in action, volunteers can identify the name's location on the wall. Visitors also can leave mementos at this memorial as they do in Washington.

“Each day any item left at the wall will be documented and carefully placed for storage and has to be taken to the wall in D.C.,” Mildren said.

“Any money raising that we did for bringing this in is not for the Legion Riders,” Mildren said. “Any leftover funds will be given to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall to keep it in perpetuity.”

She hopes to have a five-digit check to deliver in Washington, D.C., with the mementos on Sept. 16.

That's when a group of 168 local veterans will travel to see the veterans' memorials in Washington.

“We're taking three bus loads of veterans,” McNutt said.

McNutt said the presentation will be made at the memorials.

Mildren wants people to visit AVTT so history doesn't repeat itself.

“We're hoping to teach a lot of civilians what it's like to be in the military, what it's like to serve, what it's like to be forgotten and to be remembered,” she said.

Miller and Mildren said Vietnam veterans were not well received after the war.

“The Vietnam veterans took a hosing when they came back from the war,” Miller said. “Today they are just as respected as any other veterans coming home.”

“The ones that didn't make it home didn't get the recognition they should have gotten,” Miller said. “They are not forgotten; they are respected.”

WHAT: American Veterans Traveling TributeWHEN: Escorted by Butler County American Legion Riders: lineup 3 to 5 p.m. Aug. 23, kickstands up 5:30 p.m.Exhibit and events: noon Aug. 24 to noon Aug. 27 with opening ceremonies at noon Aug. 24 and recognitions and speakers at 9 a.m., noon and 7 p.m. each dayWHERE: Motorcycle escort begins at Victory Family Church, 21150 Route 19, Cranberry Township, and continues to VA Butler Healthcare, 325 New Castle Road.ROUTE: North on Route 19 to Zelienople; then on Route 68 through Evans City; to Whitestown Road; right on Hansen Avenue over the Pickle Gate Bridge; left on Route 8 North through downtown Butler; at top of Main Street Hill, right on Route 422 West to Lyndora exit and left on Route 356 south to Butler VA Healthcare.INFO: Visit “Butler Legion Riders” on Facebook or call 724-445-7203Exhibit and events: The complete schedule of events will be printed in the Butler Eagle Sunday and Aug. 20.