Dawson County and the city of Dawsonville will host the Fourth Annual Veterans Day celebration Tuesday, Nov. 11.
The ceremonies will begin at 1:30 p.m. with a banquet for all area veterans and their spouses. The parade will follow, and will start at 2:45 p.m., followed by the ceremony at 3:45 p.m. This year it will be held at Dawson County Middle School.
This year’s event is of special significance because the celebration has once again been officially designated by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs as a
“Veterans Day Regional Site.”
Last year, the Dawson County Veterans Affairs Committee, responsible for planning the event, included in the ceremony a tribute to the country’s military history.
The segment was titled, “The Unwavering Line,” and involved a salute to the veterans of all of the country’s wars, beginning with the Revolutionary War, and included the War of 1812, Indians Wars, Mexican Wars, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War and our current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It was a big success and it has been requested that the segment is included once again in this year’s ceremony.
To make this a meaningful segment of the ceremony, the Dawson County Veterans Affairs Committee is asking for volunteers to once again step forward and take part. If you are a veteran with period uniforms and/or a re-enactor, the committee is asking that you contact them and sign up for this part of the program.
The committee would like to have each of the nation’s wars represented by at least two people, and can go up to eight individuals dressed in period uniforms.
The segment will involve a brief mentioning of the wars, to include their dates, number of service members involved and causality numbers.
As the information is being read, and the Dawson County High School Band is playing patriotic music, the individuals dressed in period uniforms will march out in single file. In one long “Unwavering Line,” and post in front of the stage.
There will be a short practice session well in advance of the start time on Nov. 11.
For more information or if you would like to participate, contact Larry Freeland at (706) 216-4911 or lfreeland_25
@yahoo.com or Pam Hamalainen at (706) 265-6278 or p.hamalainen@dawson.org.