Just to clarify a bit, Mardi Gras is a 6 (ish) week celebration based on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. It lasts between 12th Night (6 January) and Fat Tuesday (“Mardi
Gras”). Ash Wednesday is the next day and marks the start of Lent, which is dependent upon a given year’s date for Easter. So in that context, talking about ‘the parade’ doesn’t narrow anything down; there are many parades, typically named for the ‘krewe’ putting it on. The year Alan went missing, there were
33 parades during that time.
In 1970, Ash Wednesday fell on 11 February. Apparently, the 1970 Mardi Gras season was one of the most violent in years, with over
600 people arrested (at least a third of which were for ‘open air sleeping’.)
So, that doesn’t square with the Namus report that “He was last seen a month later, March 10, on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana during Mardi Gras”, as Mardi Gras was a month past at that point. Since the family story is that he went missing during MG, and he missed reporting in at Keesler on 9 February, it does make one question the credibility of that report (as
@MadMcGoo mentioned previously.)
In any case, parades in 1970 did not roll through the French Quarter (Bourbon Street).
What if “March 10th” is a typo, and the reporter actually said ‘“February 10th”? This was Mardi Gras day (ie, the big event) year. However, the
NOPD also went on strike during Mardi Gras, and “the biggest New Orleans parades, including Rex, Comus and Zulu, cancelled altogether; others rolled in suburban parishes instead of New Orleans.”
Note that the parades/krewes mentioned above traditionally parade on Mardi Gras day. So there wouldn’t have been a parade to see that day.
The above krewes traditionally follow the ‘uptown route’, which is: “starting at Napoleon Avenue and Magazine Street; proceed north to St. Charles; proceed east on St. Charles to Lee Circle continuing on St. Charles to Canal Street.” This was
still true in 2023, although Lee Circle is now known as Harmony Circle.
After all that, this doesn’t really help narrow down where Alan may have been / or the bar, assuming that story is true, except that it tends to exclude the French Quarter.
Did the Air Force ever declare Alan AWOL?