Veterans Day info

A handful of tributes are scheduled around Odessa to mark Veterans Day on Wednesday.

“It’s important for us to remember our servicemen and what they’ve done for us and what they do for us every single day,” said Justin Brim, assistant director of Student Life at the University of Texas Permian Basin. “We tend to get into our lives and we forget about people who are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. I know there are veterans from WWI and Vietnam, but it’s important to remember the people that are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan every day.”

UTPB will have a jam-packed half hour of festivities starting at 9 a.m. The choir and band will perform the “Star Spangled Banner,” the drill team will dance, and there will be a public pledge of allegiance. Lt Col. Gary Law, who served with the Army Reserves in both Iraq and Afghanistan, will give a brief speech on what it means to be a soldier today. There will also be a traditional chair ceremony, honoring missing and dead soldiers, followed by a brief invocation, given by the Rev. Mark Woodruff, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church.

At 11 a.m. members of the American Legion will conduct their 40th Annual Freedom Flag Pilgrimage, marching from the American Legion Hall to the north lawn of the Ector County Courthouse where a wreath will be placed at the base of the flagpole. Harry Hicks, who served in the U.S. Army for 40 years and has been a legionnaire for more than 20 years, will give a short speech to commemorate the day.

Two flag-raising ceremonies are also on tap.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars will hold a flag-raising ceremony at 7:30 a.m. outside VFW Post 4371. Breakfast will also be served.

The Odessa College Veterans Club is sponsoring a flag-raising ceremony at 7:45 a.m. at the flagpole outside Odessa College’s Administration Building.

Veterans Day began as an honor for the day that the WWI Armistice took effect at 11 a.m., Nov. 11, 1918, ending the fighting of what was then the bloodiest war in history. President Woodrow Wilson, the first to declare the day a national holiday, saw the day as a time for parades, public meetings and remembrance.

VETERANS DAY

>> 7:30 a.m.: VFW flag raising and breakfast at VFW Post 4372, 6212 Andrews Highway.

>> 7:45 a.m.: Veterans Day flag raising at the flagpole outside the Odessa College Administration

 Building, 201 W. University Blvd.

>> 9 a.m.: UTPB program honoring Veterans Day at the Mesa Courtyard, 4901 E. University Blvd.

>> 11 a.m.: American Legion’s annual Freedom Flag Pilgrimage starting at American Legion Hall, 2701 E. Eighth St., and ending at the flag pole on the north lawn of the Ector County Courthouse, 300 N. Grant St.

>> All Day: Bowie Junior High School will have an “Honor Our Troops” booth in the foyer at the school, 500 W. 21st St.