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This Veterans Day, November 11, 2022, will mark the 75th anniversary of this historic and patriotic event. The very first Veterans Day was organized in Alabama by Raymond Weeks of Birmingham, Alabama, on November 11, 1947. The date of November 11 was originally proclaimed as Armistice Day on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, at the end of WW I. Alabama started the movement for a national Veterans Day in 1946 after receiving support from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Eisenhower established Veterans Day as a federal holiday in 1954.

The National Veterans Award was established in Birmingham in 1954. Raymond Weeks was honored by President Ronald Reagan with the Presidential Citizens Medal in 1982. The roots of these patriotic events had their origin in Birmingham in 1947. The United States Senate passed a resolution in 2012 confirming the history of starting Veterans Day in Alabama. Yet many Alabamians are not aware that their state celebrated the first Veterans Day.

Covington Veterans Foundation is proud to join other patriotic groups in our state to celebrate and honor the 75th anniversary of Veterans Day. It is our goal to help place the special posters, “America’s Veterans Day Started in Alabama,” throughout the county. We hope to provide a poster to any business or municipality that requests one and we plan on presenting a special framed poster to each school in Covington County. It is important that each student learn about the founding of Veterans Day in Alabama.

Our foundation will work closely with the main organization responsible for overseeing the success of the program to honor the founding of National Veterans Day in Alabama: Patriotism in Action, a program of nonprofit Life Leaders Institute led by Dr. David Dyson and Col. Bob Barefield [U.S. Army ret.]. Patriotism in Action sponsors the leading web page providing resources associated with how and where America’s Veterans day began.

www.VeteransDayFoundingEducation.us

Help us spread the word and follow Covington Veterans Foundation on Facebook for more information.

John Vick