Story By: NICOLE ALLEGREZZA

The annual United Veterans Organization of Patchogue’s Veterans Day ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 11 at the Four Corners on Main Street in Patchogue Village. This year’s ceremony will be led by AmVets Post 111 and attended by American Legion Post 269, VFW Post 2913, and Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War.

“The day was originally called Honors Day, which was built around World War II, and later changed to Veterans Day. A lot of people talk about the day and honoring vets, but it’s surprising how may people don’t understand what veteran is,” said VFW senior vice commander Dave Rogers. “Veterans are not just your mother, father, brother, sister, grandfather, aunt and uncle, they are your neighbors, postman, police officer and firefighters. They are everyone who has served and their families, too.”

After the ceremony, about 24 original stones will be presented as part of the Lights on Veterans program that has raised over $2,500 for local veterans organizations thus far.

The day before Veterans Day, on Friday, Nov. 10, from 11 a.m. to noon, the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce cemetery restoration committee will be presenting three headstones. Recently, three headstones for civil war veterans Private David Mott, Private Addison Day Hawkins and Private Abraham Banker were restored and returned by the VA.

Also, the WWII cannons sent out for restoration earlier this summer arrived early Friday morning, Oct. 27, just in time for Veterans Day. The two M1902 field guns located in the Harry T. Hanson Veterans Memorial Park outside the legion headquarters have been in the park since 1922, when the War Department loaned them to the Village of Patchogue for display. According to Jon Ralph, Post 269 commander, there are only about 37 or 38 of these cannons still in existence. Ralph said the cannons were completely restored to the way they were in 1922.

Both WWII-era cannons were restored and placed back on the lawn of the American Legion Post 269 last week, just in time for Veterans Day.