Marine Corps League Veterans Day Activities

Veteran’s Day is always a busy day for the Marines of the General Smedley D. Butler Detachment of the Marine Corps League. This year’s Veteran’s Day was no exception. The day started at the Paxon Hollow Country Club in Marple Township where the Detachment provided a Color guard for the Veterans Breakfast. Members of the VFW, American Legion, Marine Corps League and other veterans groups were present.

The Detachment’s Marines spent the rest of the day honoring our past and present veterans and active duty members of the Armed Forces by participating in ceremonies at the new Delco Veterans Memorial on West Chester Pike, Route 3, in Newtown Square, at Veterans Park in Broomall, at the American Legion Post 805 headquarters in Broomall, and by visiting elderly veterans at the Highgate at Paoli Point assisted living facility. They also participated in the Media Borough historic Veterans Day parade.

Marines Earle Drake and James McGuigan spoke to the veterans at Highgate of the history of Veterans Day. Veterans Day, they explained, started out as Armistice Day, commemorating the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”. It is the official date of the cessations of hostilities of “The Great War”, (WW1), on the western front. It became Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations. The United States chose “All Veterans Day” and later shortened the name to Veterans Day to honor veterans of all conflicts. Marine McGuigan spoke of his personal involvement in the Marine Corps during the war in the Pacific. At the conclusion of the program, all of the veterans present were presented with “Certificates of Appreciation”. The photo depicts Marine Drake presenting a Certificate of Appreciation at Highgate.