Dale Mullin 2025 Grand Marshal

When Dale Mullin moved to Naples in 2002, he was looking forward to a quiet retirement, where the goals of the day were to play golf and go fishing.

As a U.S. Army veteran, Mullin had faced many challenges throughout his life after returning from the Vietnam War in 1968.  But he ultimately moved forward, went to college, built a business career, and then happily married his wife, Marie Elania.

Little did he know, his quiet life in Naples would soon boomerang back to a life a service.

"It wasn't until I had seen the damage and injuries of what was happening to the young men and women coming home from today's wars after 9/11 that I became concerned the public wasn't doing enough," he says, "There wasn't enough public awareness."

He empathized with modern-day warriors because he, too, had experienced some of the same challenges when he returned from war so many decades earlier.

Looking back, certainly I suffered from some level of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) but was not aware of it because I didn't understand what PTSD was.  No one talked about it during that time," he says. "And I didn't want to see another generation of veterans returning home and just being forgotten--and I thought they were being forgotten."