Veterans Day ceremonies being held today
Cedartown and Rockmart will be playing host today to the annual celebration of Veteran’s Day, both hosting ceremonies at 11 a.m.
Brown Wright Post 12 American Legion in Rockmart will present a Veterans Day program at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11 at the Memorial Park in Downtown Rockmart.
Guest speaker will be Colonel Tony L. Millican, a 1986 graduate of Rockmart High School. He received his degree from Georgia Tech.
Millican was in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. While serving in Afghanistan, he survived an explosion of an 80-pound suicide vehicle- borne improvised device at 50 yards away. Even wounded he led a recovery team to rescue over 600 U.S. personnel.
Vaden Underwood will open the Veterans Day program.
Advancement of American colors will include Post 12 Legion Riders. Unit 12 Auxiliary First Vice President Shelia Brinkley will place a wreath at the “Killed in Action” monument.
In Cedartown, Polk County Sheriff Johnny Moats will be the keynote speaker at Cedartown Veterans Park on East Avenue at 11 a.m.
Organized by the Veterans Committee, the ceremony will also include an opening prayer by Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome, a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America” by Colleetoe Sanders, the sounding of taps, and a 21-gun salute by American Legion Brewster Cleveland Post No. 86. The program will end with a closing prayer by Jonathan Blackmon, chief deputy of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Veterans Day is an official United States federal holiday that is observed annually on November 11. It coincides with other holidays including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the end of World War I (major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect). The United States also originally observed Armistice Day; it then evolved into the current Veterans Day holiday in 1954.
Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day; Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who gave their lives and those who perished while in service.