Veterans Day ceremonies planned for Thursday

    Washington and Riverside will hold Veterans Day ceremonies this Thursday. In Washington, the day begins at 9 a.m. with a ceremony at the All Veterans Memorial at Orchard Hill. This will be followed by a meeting at the Blair House at 10:30 a.m., which is also where the American Legion Honor Guard will render a salute to veterans at 11 a.m. That is a special time on Veterans Day because that was the hour when Germany signed the armistice with the Allied Powers ending World War I on Nov. 11, 1918.

    American Legion Post 29 members Ron Northup and Lonnie Milligan will give speeches at the Blair House.

    In the afternoon, the American Legion Post 29 members and the F-Troop Historical Society members will visit the United Presbyterian Home and Halcyon House to honor the veterans and their families.

    A dinner will be held at the Iowa Army National Guard Readiness Center at 6 p.m. that evening. The center is located west of HyVee on Highway 1. The dinner will be prepared by local veteran Wayne Gamon and other volunteers. Following the meal, Chaplain William Kneemiller will deliver a speech. Kneemiller has recently returned from Afghanistan, and will share his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and the impact that military chaplains have on troops.

    All of Thursday?s events are offered at no charge. Dinner is a free-will offering and all proceeds will go to supporting the World War II Honor Flight program that provides trips to Washington, D. C., for WWII veterans so that they may visit the National WWII Memorial.  

    Not all of the events will occur Thursday. Veterans in Washington will visit schools in town on Wednesday to share stories about their time in the service.

    Washington veteran Jim Peterson said the purpose of their trip to the schools is to ?educate and enlighten the kids on what veterans have done.? 

    The events in Riverside will be held at the Veterans Memorial Park at 1:30 p.m. The featured speaker of the event is Major Jeffrey Rothermel. Rothermel is from Iowa City and is the son of Betsey Neipert, the pastor of the Riverside Trinity United Methodist Church. Neipert will give the benediction at the ceremony.

    Rothermel was a Team Chief in Iraq, where he led an 11-man team of U.S. military counterinsurgency advisors that worked with an Iraqi Army Light Infantry Battalion in northern Iraq along the Syrian border. Rothermel is currently pursuing a master?s degree in military history from American Military University.

For more, see our Nov. 8 print edition.