Veterans to be saluted across Peninsula

Veterans will be recognized in ceremonies across the North Olympic Peninsula on Sunday and Monday.

Here are scheduled events, listed by community.

PORT ANGELES

Regional ceremony

PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles resident and Gold Star Mother Betsy Reed Schultz will be the featured speaker at a regional ceremony at Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

The Clallam County Veterans Association’s 2012 Veterans Day ceremony is open to the public, and the front gate at the end of Ediz Hook will open at 9:30 a.m.

Visitors must have photo identification available at the entry checkpoint.

All veteran organization flags will be posted prior to the start of the ceremony.

Any organization desiring to have its flag posted must do so no later than 9:45 a.m. Sunday.

A reception and barbecue sponsored by the Clallam County Veterans Association will follow the ceremony at the Clallam County Veterans Center, 216 S. Francis St.

Reed Schultz’s son, Capt. Joseph William Schultz, a decorated Green Beret, was killed May 29, 2011, along with two members of his Army special forces team when the Humvee they were riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

Membership in the Gold Star Mothers is open to any American woman who has lost a son or daughter in service to the United States.

Reed Schultz is in the process of converting the former Tudor Inn Bed & Breakfast into the Captain Joseph House, a place “to provide comfort and a home away from home for the families of the fallen.”

For more information about the ceremony, phone Tammy Sullenger at 360-417-2383.

SEQUIM

Shields remembrance

An annual remembrance of Navy Seabee and Medal of Honor recipient Marvin G. Shields will begin at the Gardiner Cemetery at 11 a.m. Monday.

The Seabees of Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest, Naval Construction Maintenance Battalion Detachment 303, Navy Seabee Veterans of America and family members will honor Shields at the event.

The ceremony draws Seabees from throughout the Northwest.

Because of limited parking, the public is encouraged to park at Gardiner Community Church at 1040 Old Gardiner Road, where a bus will take attendees to the cemetery beginning at 10:15 a.m.

Construction Mechanic 3rd Class 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.

This year’s honor ceremony will be especially poignant, as Shields’ daughter Barbara died of heart failure April 28, organizers said.

Shields was a graduate of Port Townsend High School and lived in Discovery Bay.

He is buried at the Gardiner Cemetery.

La Vina Cafe

SEQUIM — La Vina Cafe, 111 River Road, will honor veterans from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday.

Free rides for veterans in tethered hot-air balloons will be available at noon, weather permitting.

For more information, phone 360-460-7083.

PORT TOWNSEND/JEFFERSON COUNTY

Legion Post 26

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. Sunday.

The ceremony will honor all veterans and recognize 52 Legion members who have held continuous membership for 20 years or longer.

It will be held at the American Legion, corner of Water and Monroe streets.

Retired Col. Nancy McDaniel, U.S. Air Force, Medical Service Corps, will serve as featured speaker and present “Standing Guard.”

A pre-ceremony concert by the Port Townsend Summer Band at 10:30 a.m. will feature marches and other patriotic music.

Following the ceremony, a buffet luncheon will be served by the Post 26 Auxiliary to the public.

McDaniel was born in Port Townsend and was raised in Chimacum, where she graduated from Chimacum High School.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Puget Sound, where she was the first woman to be commissioned as a second lieutenant through the school’s Air Force ROTC program.

She later earned a master’s degree in health care administration from Trinity University in San Antonio.

As a Medical Service Corps officer, she was stationed at bases in the Republic of the Philippines, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and at the Pentagon in the office of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

Her last duty station was Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, where she was chief of staff, Human Systems Center.

She retired in 1997.

Hadlock VFW

PORT HADLOCK — Veterans of Foreign Wars Bruce F. Matheson Post 7498 will hold an open house at the facility, 31 Matheson St., on Sunday.

All veterans and active-duty personnel are welcome.

Breakfast will be served from 8 a.m. to noon, and a lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs is planned from noon to 4 p.m. A $5 donation is requested for each meal.

Veterans and active-duty personnel with the proper DD-214 identification may receive one meal free.

A service officer is to be on hand to explain entitlements and claims for veterans.

For more information, phone 360-301-5010.

Port Ludlow Beach Club

PORT LUDLOW — Veterans and widows and widowers of veterans are invited to a Veterans Day observance at the Port Ludlow Beach Club, 121 Marina View Drive, at 4 p.m. Sunday.

The event is tailored for vets and their families, but all who would like to attend are invited to the program.

Seaport Landing

PORT TOWNSEND — Seaport Landing Retirement and Assisted Living Community, 1201 Hancock St., will hold a Veterans Day ceremony in the facility’s north dining room at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Navy Chief Thomas Hodges from Naval Magazine Indian Island is the guest speaker.

The video “Life on Duty,” a story of the survival of two of Seaport’s residents, will be shown.

It details how a ship carrying one resident was torpedoed in wartime and how a second ship carrying the other resident was part of the ultimate rescue. The two men didn’t realize their connection until 60 years later.

FREE PARK ENTRANCE

Olympic National Park

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — In honor of Veterans Day, the national park will waive entrance fees Saturday through Monday.

The fee-free designation applies to entrance fees only and does not apply to other fees.

For more information, visit www.nps.gov/olym.

State parks

Washington State Parks will provide free entrance to state parks Saturday and Sunday in honor of Veterans Day.

No Discover Pass will be needed to visit state parks such as those on the Peninsula — Fort Worden State Park and Fort Flagler in Port Townsend, Sequim Bay State Park and Bogachiel State Park near Forks — on those two days.

A Discover Pass still will be required for land managed by the state Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

For more information, visit www.discoverpass.wa.gov.

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