Veterans Committee Selects Lt. Colonel Michael J. Coote as 2024 Parade Grand Marshal

Veterans Committee Selects Lt. Colonel Michael J. Coote as 2024 Parade Grand Marshal

October 31, 2024

Miami Lakes, FL – The Town of Miami Lakes eagerly awaits celebrating the longest running salute to service in all of Miami-Dade County history at the 45th Annual Veterans Parade on November 3, 2024 at 10 a.m.

Following a nomination period and selection, the Town of Miami Lakes Veterans Committee voted to select Lt. Colonel Michael J. Coote as the Grand Marshal, leading off the community’s shining parade down NW 67th Avenue. There will also be a dedication ceremony at the parade’s terminus at Town Hall (6601 Main Street) at 12 p.m., in which a flag will be presented to the grand marshal in an occasion honoring the event.

Biography for Lt. Colonel Michael J. Coote

Lt. Col. Michael Coote was born in New York and raised in New Hampshire. After graduating high school and attending college for three years, he joined the US Army as an airborne infantryman in 1983 at the age of 21 at the rank of Private First Class. 

His first enlistment of three years included Infantry Basic Training, Airborne School, and Ranger School. He was assigned to the 2^nd Ranger Company in Georgia where he worked as an instructor and where he represented the unit at the 1985 Best Ranger Competition. In 1986 he volunteered for Special Forces training as an engineer/demolition sergeant at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Upon graduation he was awarded the Green Beret and was assigned to an operational detachment (A-team) with the 7th Special Forces Group forward deployed to the country of Panama, where he served for 4 years throughout South America during the drug wars of the 1980s. 

He volunteered for and completed Combat Dive Training while in Panama, and subsequently was assigned to duties on a combat dive team, still deploying overseas. Mike was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge for action in Panama with the removal of Noriega and 6 months later received orders sending him to the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center in the U.S. to serve as a Special Forces instructor. While at Ft Bragg he completed training in military freefall parachuting (HALO – high altitude low opening), as well as cross training as a Special Forces Medic, where he also received his civilian paramedic qualification, and a language rating in Portuguese.

He returned to serve on an A team for an additional 3 years, rising to the rank of Sergeant First Class (selected for promotion to Master Sergeant) before submitting a packet to attend officer candidate school (OCS) He was selected, and sent to the University of Nebraska’s Physician Assistant Program.

Mike graduated and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant with a master’s degree in physician assistant studies and was assigned to duties with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82^nd Airborne Division, with the current Secretary of Defense (then Colonel) Lloyd Austin, commanding. After 2 ½ years, First Lieutenant Coote returned to Special Forces. 

While assigned to the 7^th Special Forces Group as an officer, he was promoted to Captain, serving in Afghanistan twice: First as a front-line medical officer at a forward operating base (FOB) where he was awarded the Combat Medical Badge for combat action, and then as the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF), Acting Command Surgeon at Bagram Air Base.

Returning stateside he deployed multiple times to Central/South America and was promoted to the rank of Major.  In 2010 he was one of the first US military members deployed to Haiti as part of the humanitarian relief in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, and in 2011 was selected and attended the Command and General Staff College. The article he wrote on counterinsurgency operations was selected for publication in the Small Wars Journal later that year.

The last years of his 35+ year career saw him promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and duties as the Command Surgeon for the Joint Interagency Task Force – South in Key West, FL, as well as being assigned to the United States Southern Command, Doral, Florida where he worked with other countries developing partner nation medical capabilities for frontline forces and where he facilitated medical evacuations of US military forces in theater back to the United States.

Lt. Col. Coote started his career as a Private First Class in 1983 and finished his career in 2018 as a Lieutenant Colonel. He is very proud of his service to his country, and exceptionally grateful for the opportunities provided him. His career aside, he his most thankful for being blessed with five wonderful children and for living in this beautiful country of ours.