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VALLEY — Memorial Day will be celebrated nationally this year on Monday, May 29th. From 1868 until 1970, the holiday was always observed on May 30th. Since then, it has taken place on the final Monday in May. Memorial Day is a federal holiday to honor and mourn U.S. military personnel who have died while serving in the United States armed forces.

Post 67 of the American Legion will host a Memorial Day service at 11 a.m. EDT in Veterans Memorial Park. Everyone is invited to attend. There’s a special invitation for local veterans to be there.

Chambers County Veterans Service Officer Yvonne Triplett will be the guest speaker. She will be talking about what her office does in assisting Chambers County veterans. Veteran service officers assist veterans in filing service-connected disability claims with the VA. They also assist veterans in obtaining benefits relative to vocational rehabilitation, VA home loans, education, insurance, burial benefits and non-service connected pension benefits.

Also recognized in the program will be two brothers from the local area, Sherrill and Schirra Roberts, who served in the military. Sherrill Roberts graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York 30 years ago this month.

Since its inception in the post-World War II years, Post 67 has hosted Memorial Day programs in May and Veterans Day programs in November.

Memorial Day is a holiday that is widely seen as the start of the summer season in the U.S. with Labor Day being seen as its conclusion.

It’s a fun day but is more than just a day for a cookout and being off work. The monuments in Veterans Park remind us that many young men from this area gave their lives for our freedom and our way of life.

Being in Veterans Park and taking part in a Memorial Day program is a way to show some appreciation and respect for what they did for both our nation and our local community. There are four separate monuments in the park, one for those who died in World War II, one for those who died in Korea, one for the local men who were killed in Vietnam and one for Brandon Hadaway, who died in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars.