By By MaryClaire Foster
Atmore veterans from both the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7016 and American Legion Post 90 took time Saturday to honor their fellow military men and women with their annual parade and memorial program.
This year’s events were held to commemorate both Memorial Day and Armed Forces Day.
Armed Forces Day is not a national holiday, and is generally celebrated by the military on bases.
Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day and is held the last Monday of each May to commemorate soldiers who died while in military service. Originally, Memorial Day was held to honor Union soldiers, but following World War I was expanded to include all fallen American veterans.
VFW Commander Lee “Lavan” Martin spoke at the event of how meaningful it was to those veterans still living to commemorate these days and how much the community support meant to him and all veterans and their families.
Martin also previously wrote about the importance of the celebrations.
Atmore Mayor Howard Shell said Saturday’s program and parade were an important event for the community.
Memorial Day will be locally celebrated by JROTC cadets, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts placing flags on the graves of veterans early Saturday morning on May 23 and collect them early Tuesday morning, May 26.
It is also asked that you fly your flag at half-staff until noon on May 25. Call Frank Moxness at 368-2015 if you can help with grave flags.