| Local VFW to host Veterans Day event | | Posted: Thursday, November 8, 2012 9:52 pm
| Sunday is Veterans Day — a day Americans honor all those who fought while serving our country in the military.
It was originally called Armistice Day and was set on Nov. 11 to celebrate the anniversary of the official end of World War I on that date in 1918. In 1954, it was renamed Veterans Day in order to honor all fallen and living military servicemen and servicewomen.
President Obama recently signed a proclamation stating, “Our men and women in uniform have taught us about strength, duty, devotion, resolve — cornerstones of a commitment to protect and defend that has kept our country safe for over 200 years. In war and in peace, their service has been selfless and their accomplishments have been extraordinary.”
This year marked the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the country began to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Americans, including northwest Ten-nesseans who embraced members of the Tennessee National Guard’s 913th Engineer Co., welcomed home veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans of Foreign Wars Jones-Walker Post 4862 in Obion County will be hosting a special Veterans Day program Sunday at 2 p.m. to honor all local veterans.
The guest speaker will be Johnny Dyer, who was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne.
He served in Operation Just Cause and Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for 18 years, serving six of those years as a union officer. He is attending the University of Tennessee at Martin, where he is majoring in secondary education, focusing on history and political science.
He is married to Tracy Dyer and has four children, Joshua Dyer, Aaron Dyer, Whittney Lee and Caroline Lee.
Refreshments will be served and everyone is invited to attend.
During World War II, it was an American tradition to keep the porch lights on for “our boys” overseas. At the end of the war, many Americans continued leaving their porch lights on as a symbolic way for the soldiers to “find their way home.”
Members of the ladies auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars are asking the tradition be continued with a nationwide effort to have residents keep their porch lights lit from dusk until dawn on Veterans Day “in recognition and remembrance of those who have fought and will continue to answer America’s call in order that America has the freedoms which we take for granted.”
Obion County Mayor Benny McGuire recently called upon the people “in this Great State to observe the sacrifices that our military has made and continues to make by ‘Lighting their way to preserve our Freedom’ by turning on your porch lights from dusk until dawn on Nov. 11, 2012.”
Published in The Messsenger 11.8.12 | | | | |
