By Citizen’s News
Veterans’ organizations and local officials in Beacon Falls, Naugatuck and Prospect will observe Veterans Day, Nov. 11, with ceremonies.
The Naugatuck Veterans Council will mark Veterans Day with a series of events. The council will lower a float from the Whittemore Bridge on Maple Street at 10:30 a.m. and lay a wreath at the World War I Memorial on Meadow Street at 10:45 a.m., followed by a ringing of the bells observance at 11 a.m.
The Veterans Day parade steps off from the Ion Bank parking lot, 87 Church St., Naugatuck, at 2 p.m. The parade will travel up Church Street to the Naugatuck Green on Division Street for a ceremony.
This year’s speaker for the ceremony is retired U.S. Army Reserve Col. Ralph S. Roper Jr., an administrator assistant at Hillside Intermediate School in Naugatuck. Roper, who was born in Panama and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., graduated from officer candidate school in 1988 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant adjutant general basic branch.
Roper had a distinguished military career, including serving as the director of a Civil Military Operations Center at the United Nations compound in Baghdad, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was inducted into the Connecticut Army National Guard’s Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame this year.
Prospect’s annual Veterans Day ceremony is 11 a.m. on the town Green on Center Street. The ceremony will include members of American Legion Post 194 and VFW Post 8075 placing wreathes at the foot of the Civil War monument to honor veterans.
American Legion Post 25 in Beacon Falls will host its annual Veterans Day service at 11 a.m. at Matthies Park on Pines Bridge Road. The ceremony will feature speakers and a wreath laying.
All veterans and the public are welcome to attend the ceremonies. For information on the ceremonies in Naugatuck, email Naugatuck Veterans Council Chairman John DeBisschop at j.debisschop@snet.net.
