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The Covington Veterans Foundation in partnership with the City of Andalusia  Tuesday night will celebrate its inaugural Celebration of Heroes: A Salute to Covington County Veterans, beginning Sunday.

The two-week event will begin on Sunday, November 3, with a musical celebration of veterans and the opening of a veterans exhibit at City Hall. The Celebration has been designated an Alabama Bicentennial event.

The celebration, which is being coordinated by Covington Veterans Foundation member Amy Dugger, is set for 2 p.m. in the newly-renovated Andalusia High School auditorium. Members of the Andalusia High School band, along with other groups, will present the musical tribute. Retired Lt. Col. Jim Lawrence will be the keynote speaker. 

Following the ceremony, a reception in Andalusia City Hall will mark the opening of a historical exhibit focusing on the contributions of local veterans.

John Vick said  Rodney J. Evans of Florala, the county’s only recipient of the Medal of Honor. will be among those veterans honored in the exhibit. Evans died in Vietnam in July 1969 shielding his fellow soldiers from an enemy mine. Also to be spotlighted are the late Brigadier General James U. Cross of Pleasant Home, an Air Force One pilot and personal confident of President Lyndon D, Johnson; Ben “Crum” Foshee, member of the famed Flying Tigers squadron that fought the Japanese in China before the U.S. entered the war; Eland Anthony of Andalusia, WWII Silver Star recipient who was present for the liberation of the Dachau death camp in Germany; and Charles Saunders of Opp, a military guard at the Nuremberg Trials of the surviving leaders of the defeated Nazi regime.