COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Members of the armed services past and present are being honored today on this Veterans Day. In Branch County, that includes Coldwater American Legion Post 52 hosting its annual Veterans Day program and open house, which begins at 10 a.m. with complimentary coffee and donuts and then at 11 a.m., there will be a moment of silence followed by a rifle salute and playing of taps by the Coldwater American Legion Drill team. Following the ceremony, a luncheon will be served. There is no cost to attend the open house and the public is welcome.
There are over 3,400 veterans in Branch County and yesterday, the Branch County Board of Commissioners paid tribute to all veterans while giving special recognition to the Branch County Veterans Affairs Board and Veterans Affairs Counselor Charles Scott. The senior member of the Veterans Affairs Board is Dwight Green, a World War Two veteran who enlisted at the age of 18 and was wounded in the Philippines on November 9, 1944, and still suffers to this day from the effects of those injuries. The other Affairs Board members are Dennis Hopkins, Thomas Merkle, Marvin Merkle, and Stacey Hepner, as well as Branch County Commissioner Rod Olney.
This Veterans Day is also special in that it happens just a few months after the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Veterans Day became a legal holiday in 1938. It was originally known as Armistice Day, and was meant to commemorate the day in 1918 when an armistice went into effect near the end of World War One. That armistice went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of that year.
The Branch County Courthouse is closed today in observance of Veterans Day as is the Burnside Senior Center in Coldwater where a Veterans Day program is happening on Friday, November 13 starting at 10 a.m. with a free lunch served to the first 100 veterans 50 years old and over, sponsored by Drews Place.
