Veteran’s Day of Remembrance Program to Be Held November 10; Annual Event Started in 1982
This year’s celebration will mark almost 40 years for the Mineral Wells Veterans Day Program
By Mary So
Due to Mineral Wells ISD being on a four-day week schedule, the annual Veterans Day of Remembrance program will be held on November 10 at Ram Stadium in Mineral Wells, Texas. There will be public seating on the home side of the stadium in the middle section. The community is invited to attend. It is suggested you come around 10:30 a.m. The program will officially begin at 11 a.m.
In 1982, a small group of veterans from American Legion Post 75 decided that it would be good to have a program that would be open to the community but focused on helping our young citizens know what Veterans Day was about and how those veterans could be honored. The team headed by the late Senator Tom Creighton and COL Jack Horton (US Army, ret) met with the MWISD Superintendent to discuss their ideas. The Superintendent agreed, and it was decided that November 11, 1982 would be the day for the first cooperative Veterans Dayprogram to be held at Miller Football Stadium. With exception of one year when the program was not held at the stadium due to a downpour of rain but was held at the American Legion Hall.
Later on, two more programs were moved to the high school gym and had limited audience due to weather. Another year was canceled due to pandemic requirements but Mineral Wells ISD and American Legion Post 75 and its family of organizations [to include the American Legion Auxiliary, Sons of the Legion and Legion Riders] have continued to work together to make theVeterans Day of Remembrance program possible. On another interesting note, several schools have followed the program at their locations all over the state of Texas. The program was once featured on the cover of the National Legion magazine.
As a review of the significance for choosing November 11, we need to go back to 1919. It was the first anniversary of Armistice Day that was observed as the day WW I ended. It was named Armistice Day. After a bill was sent to Congress in 1954 and passed, President Eisenhower signed the bill proclaiming that the day would be known as Veterans Day.
If you have not attended one of the programs at Ram Stadium, you are in for an awesome time. Our various groups of students will perform songs or dance routines. Our veterans will be recognized for their service to our country and we will have a special speaker to share his story of being a veteran and his time as a student here at Mineral Wells a few years back.
Our guest speaker will be Major Joe Biles who is a Major in the Air Force Reserves stationed in Abilene, Texas. Our Master of Ceremonies will be American Legion Sons of the Legion member and City Councilman, Brian Shoemaker. Both men are graduates of Mineral Wells High School.
To read more about Biles, take a look at his Biography we published by Mary Creighton.
