Saying ‘thank you’ to local veterans

Published 5:00 am Sunday, November 12, 2017

A week of events honoring area veterans culminated Saturday at the Cullman VFW, where local veterans greeted members of the community for a casual day of food, football and friendship.

VFW Post 2214 welcomed the community on Veterans Day with free burgers and snacks, kids’ activities, door prizes and TVs fired up with the day’s college football games. The event, which had been held at Veterans Memorial Park at Sportsman Lake in years past, was moved to the VFW Post to accommodate annual crowds that have seen steady increases.

Post 2214 Quartermaster Adjutant Will Harris said Cullman County has consistently demonstrated strong support for the men and women who’ve given their service.

“It is surprisingly, surprisingly patriotic here,” said Harris, a 1964 Cullman graduate who spent 25 years in the Army National Guard. “It had gotten so congested, with the turnout we were having over at the lake, that they decided to move it. Really, it is a good problem to have. And Col. [Ken] Brown has done just a bang-up job over the years of organizing these events.”

“Early on, when they first started having these Veterans Day events at the lake, the turnout was small; just veterans and their families,” added retired Marine Sergeant and Guardsman Robert Turner, a Purple Heart recipient.

“But it kept growing year after year. And we’ve had a great turnout at both of our big veterans’ events this year: last weekend at the airport, and then here, today.”

At the nation’s capital, the 64th National Veterans Day Observance recognized veterans with its annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Vice President Mike Pence recognized veterans at this year’s ceremony, accompanied by Secretary of Defense James Mattis.