Skydiving, sword-cutting Veterans Day celebration in Granite Shoals
Granite Shoals has big plans for its Veterans Day ceremony Nov. 11. The celebration’s agenda features a patriotic slideshow of local service members and their families, a skydiving flag bearer, and a birthday cake for the U.S. Marine Corps’ 249th anniversary, which will be cut by sword.
“We’ve got a big event coming on,” said Granite Shoals Police Chief John Ortis, an Army and Marine Corps veteran who is helping organize the event.
The celebration is from 10 a.m. to around noon Monday at Veterans Park, 149 W. Willow Drive in Granite Shoals. It opens with a slideshow of veteran photos that the city began collecting in October.
“This gives us a moment in time to honor those who took an oath to defend this country,” Ortis said. “We just want to take the time to thank these individuals, and their families for supporting them while they’re deployed.”
Ortis pointed to an example close to home of GSPD Officer Cory Jones, who recently returned from a one-year deployment with the Army National Guard.
“Jones just missed a year of his daughter’s life,” he said. “He was gone to defend what this country stands for.”
A skydiver holding an American flag will drop in at 11 a.m. as the National Anthem plays. A traditional flag-raising ceremony will follow.
Ortis told DailyTrib.com he was inspired to revitalize Veterans Day celebrations in the city by stories of big ceremonies held before he began working with the Granite Shoals Police Department 13 years ago. Those events were mostly led by World War II and Vietnam-era veterans.
“We want to recognize those here with us or those that are no longer with us,” he said. “We may even inspire young men and women to join the military.”
Monday’s festivities will be a combined celebration of Veterans Day and the U.S. Marine Corps’ 249th birthday, which falls on Sunday, Nov. 10.
Granite Shoals Fire Rescue Lt. Josh Nugent, a Marine Corps veteran, will lend his captain’s sword to a cake-cutting ceremony that will be performed by the oldest and youngest Marines present.
Younger service members will be an important part of the event, Ortis said.
“My generation tends to get focus for (post-traumatic stress disorder) and suicide. They don’t talk about the men and woman who lost their lives defending this country,” he said. “We tend to forget about our younger generation. We just want to give recognition.”