PORT ANGELES
Regional ceremony
PORT ANGELES — Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles will host its annual Veterans Day ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
The event will be the 16th consecutive year that the station has been designated by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs as a regional Veterans Day observance site.
Scheduled speakers and performers include Army Major Jennifer Willis, the Port Angeles High School Band and the Sequim High School Select Choir, along with other local vocal groups including the Olympic Peninsula Men’s Choir and the Grand Olympics Chorus of Sweet Adelines International.
The Clallam County Veterans Association is sponsoring this event.
The public is welcome to attend and can enter the Coast Guard station from the front gate at the end of Ediz Hook in Port Angeles starting at 9:30 a.m.
Attendees must have photo identification available at the entry checkpoint.
Veterans potluck
PORT ANGELES — Fairview Grange, 161 Lake Farm Road, will hold a Veterans Appreciation Event and Potluck at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Veterans do not need to bring a potluck item.
There will be a short ceremony recognizing veterans, food and a small token of appreciation from grange members.
For more information, phone 360-461-9008.
Open house slated
PORT ANGELES — Mount Angeles Memorial Park will host a Veterans Day open house starting at 9 a.m. Friday.
The public is invited to come into the office at 45 Monroe Road for coffee, doughnuts and free flags to adorn the grave of a loved one they wish to honor.
For more information, phone 360-452-6255.
Patriot Guard film
PORT ANGELES — A new documentary, “Patriot Guard Riders,” will be screened at Olympic Cellars, 255410 U.S. Highway 101, on Veterans Day.
The film will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday at the winery at 255410 U.S. Highway 101 after a no-host bar and light refreshments begin at 6 p.m.
The documentary’s director, Ellen Frick, will take part in a question-and-answer session conducted by film critic Rebecca Redshaw following the screening.
Donations are $25.
“Patriot Guard Riders” traces a motorcycle group that formed to protect people attending military funerals from the Westboro Baptist Church, which claims that American war casualties are divine retribution for the country’s tolerance of homosexuality.
Now 250,000 strong, bereaved families nationwide invite the group to escort fallen soldiers from the airport to the burial grounds, where they stand in flag lines even when protesters don’t show up.
The fundraising event is co-sponsored by Peninsula Community Mental Health Center and Olympic Cellars.
Profits will be directed to unfunded veteran services.
Tickets are available at Port Book & News, 104 E. First St.; online at www.olympiccellars.com; or by phoning 360-452-0160.
SEQUIM
Wartime memories
SEQUIM — The Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley will observe Veterans Day by revisiting Sequim’s military past in a program at the Dungeness Schoolhouse on Veterans Day.
The presence of U.S. Army soldiers in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley during World War II will be discussed during “Sequim Wartime Memories,” a panel discussion at the schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road, at 10 a.m.
Scheduled panelists include Helen Bucher, Charles Nelson, Velma Good, Larry McHone, Mayme Faulk, Bob Clark and Wilma Johnson.
Author and historian Terry Buchanan, who wrote The History of Fort Casey and the Defense of the Pacific Northwest, will serve as moderator.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Army troops were billeted at Sequim High School, City Hall and other public buildings.
The soldiers often socialized with area residents and families.
Admission at the door will be $1 for students 17 or younger, $10 for MAC members and $12 for nonmembers per session.
Advance registration and payment is accepted, though not required, through the MAC Exhibit Center, 175 W. Cedar St. in Sequim.
For more information, visit www.macsequim.org or phone the MAC Exhibit Center at 360-683-8110.
PORT TOWNSEND/JEFFERSON COUNTY
Shields honored
GARDINER — Navy Seabees from the Northwest will honor Navy Seabee and Medal of Honor recipient Marvin G. Shields during Veterans Day ceremonies at the Gardiner Cemetery at 11 a.m. Friday.
Because of limited parking, the public is encouraged to park at the Gardiner Community Church at 1040 Old Gardiner Road, where a bus will transport attendees to the cemetery beginning at 10:15 a.m.
The annual memorial service at Gardiner Cemetery “is intended to recognize the contributions and sacrifices of those who have served in our armed services and in particular the historic actions of one of our nation’s heroes of the Vietnam War,” said Jerry Landcastle, Northwest District commander of the Seabee veterans organization.
Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Marvin Shields died in 1965 and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson for gallantry during combat in Vietnam.
Shields was a graduate of Port Townsend High School and lived in Discovery Bay.
He is buried at the Gardiner Cemetery.
The annual ceremony is sponsored by the Navy Seabee Veterans of America and will be conducted by Eric Davis of the local chapter.
Members of Shields’ family are expected to be present.
Capt. Pat Rios, commanding officer of Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest and Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303, will participate in the memorial services.
Also attending will be Naval Facilities Engineering Command Force Master Chief Ray Dickey from the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., and Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Master Chief Petty Officer Dale Dehler from Norfolk, Va.
Legion ceremony
PORT TOWNSEND — The public is invited to attend the annual Veterans Day ceremony by the Marvin G. Shields Memorial American Legion Post 26 at 11 a.m. Friday
Navy Cmdr. Gary D. Martin, the commanding officer of Naval Magazine Indian Island, will be the guest speaker at the ceremony at the American Legion Hall at the corner of Water and Monroe streets.
A pre-ceremony concert by the Port Townsend Summer Band at 10:30 a.m. will feature marches and other patriotic music.
The ceremony will honor all veterans and recognize 47 Legion members who have held continuous membership for 20 years or longer.
Following the ceremony, a buffet luncheon will be served by the Post 26 Auxiliary to the public.
For more information, phone Post Cmdr. Joe Carey at the Legion Hall at 360-385-3454.
