Events to honor veterans

Published 9:27 pm Thursday, November 8, 2012

Several events and activities are scheduled this weekend to help celebrate Veterans Day, which is Sunday.
At 3 p.m. Sunday, a Veterans Day observance will be conducted at Veterans Memorial Park on East Third Street in Washington. The observance will include recognition of the 50th anniversary of the formal involvement of the United States of America in the Vietnam War, according to event organizers.
The observance is organized by American Legion Auxiliary Unit 15, which is based in Washington.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Bonner Point in Bath, a group of Revolutionary War re-enactors will help celebrate Veterans Day weekend by demonstrating how soldiers from that era lived, displaying related crafts and firing muskets. The event is sponsored by the Historic Bath Site.
The re-enactors are known as His Majesty’s 64th Regiment of Foot.
The event is free and open to the public.
Today, Bath Elementary School holds its annual Veterans Day program in its newly reconstructed gymnasium. An American flag flown over the U.S. Capitol will be presented to the school.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, a program focusing on veterans will be presented at the Pantego Academy Historical Museum. The program is open to the public.
Veterans Day traces its roots to World War I. In the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, a cessation of hostilities between the Allies and Germany occurred, in effect ending World War I.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Web site describes Veterans Day this way: “A celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.”

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.