Every year – on Memorial Day and Veterans Day – the City of Opelika uses the same theme when honoring our area Veterans: Freedom isn’t Free! We use this recurring theme to remind our community that the freedoms we enjoy in America came at a price in the past, and continue to come at a price today! It is our hope that when folks hear these words, “Freedom isn’t Free” they remember the sacrifice.
This year’s Veterans Day activities will continue in that tradition, with this year’s program paying special tribute to WWII Veterans – a generation of soldiers from what veteran newscaster Tom Brokaw penned as “The Greatest Generation.”
The Wednesday morning event (November 11th) will start with the city’s traditional Veterans Day Breakfast, held at the Elks Lodge, located at 1944 Opelika Road, beginning at 8 a.m. You do not need tickets. The breakfast is free to all veterans!
We will have a very special speaker, Malcolm “Buck” Marsh, who fought in WWII at the Battle of the Bulge. We will also have a very special guest, Doug Horn, who made a recent trip to Omaha Beach, bringing home with him some of the sand from that infamous landing point of Allied forces in 1944; his father, Douglas L. Horn (who was a Sergeant during WWII, and later served as a 1st Lieutenant during the Korean war), fought on that beach, which was dubbed “The Bloody Omaha”.
Doug will have a special presentation to honor both his father and all WWII Veterans, both at the breakfast and later, at the Veterans Memorial Monument, which will begin at 11 a.m. The Veterans Memorial Monument is located at 204 South 7th Street in downtown Opelika (Opelika’s City Hall).
The City of Opelika will present a special Proclamation of Appreciation to all WWII Veterans who come to either or both events on Wednesday, November 11th. If you know of any veteran please invite them to join us at both the Veterans Day Breakfast and the services around the Veterans Memorial Monument on this special day, and help us remember this very important truth: Freedom ISN’T free!
From the Archives — originally published on the Opelika Daily News on November 3, 2009. View the original page.
