Veterans Day events begin with a parade starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Homer High School parking lot. Sponsored by the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Homer Elks Lodge, the parade goes down Heath Street to Pioneer Avenue, west along Pioneer Avenue to Main Street, south toward the Sterling Highway and east on the highway to the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center.

Bill Sheldon, a past commander of the American Legion and one of the Veterans Day organizers, said all organizations and individuals are invited to join the parade. He asked parade participants to arrive at the high school by 10:15 a.m. Rides are available for people with limited mobility. Sheldon said there will be a "40 and 8," a restored locomotive and boxcar on wheels like the military trains which held either 40 troops or eight horses in a boxcar.

"It's kind of the fun end of the American Legion," he said.

A lunch for veterans follows at noon at the American Legion Post 16 hall, Mile 2.5 East End Road.

Veterans Day ceremonies are traditionally held at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the time hostilities ended for World War I in 1918. Veterans Day originally was celebrated as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I. After World War II and the Korean War, in 1954, the U.S. Congress changed the name of the national holiday to Veterans Day.

In the first Veterans Day proclamation in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "Let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain."

Sheldon, a Korean War veteran, said the American Legion includes veterans of foreign conflicts from World War II to the first Gulf War. Last Memorial Day, about 30 World War II veterans from the lower Kenai Peninsula showed up at an event held by the legion to honor them. He said most of the World War II veterans remain active.

For more information on Veterans Day activities, call the American Legion at 235-8864 or Sheldon at 235-6789.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.