The annual Hattiesburg Veterans Day program and parade will be celebrated Monday, Nov. 12.
The parade will begin at 10 a.m. at Hardy Street Baptist Church and continue down Hardy Street to Hattiesburg Veterans Park downtown. Floats, more than eight bands, military vehicles, marching groups, cars and jeeps will be a part of the parade. Veterans organizations will also be in parade, which organizer Ted Tibbett describes as “one of largest in the state.”
The Veterans Day program begins at 11 a.m. in Veterans Park downtown.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Stacey Pickering, head of the state Veterans Affairs board. Pickering is the state’s former auditor and he also is a lieutenant colonel in the Mississippi Air National Guard. He will have VA service officers with him.
On the 100th anniversary of World War I, lunch is set for noon at VFW Post 3036, 210 Ronie Street. Following lunch at 1 p.m., Dr. Andrew Wiest, Distinguished Professor of History and Founding Director of the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society at USM; Dr. Allison Abra, associate professor history and fellow of the Dale Center; and Tommy Lofton, director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum, will lead a panel discussion on World War I, the most important war that Americans ever forgot. The panel discussion will be followed by audience participation.
At 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, the Air Force ROTC detachment from the University of Southern Mississippi will begin their 24-hour vigil at Veterans Park. At 7 p.m. that night, they will read the 173 names of the Pine Belt men who gave their lives in defense of our country from World War I to the present. Their names are on the four granite pillars at the park.
