All military branches gather at Fort Polk for Veteran’s Day celebration

FORT POLK, La. (KALB) - Veterans Day, as opposed to Memorial Day, is a day where current veterans, as well as veterans who gave their life for their country, are honored.

At Fort Polk, the Veterans Day ceremony was held at the 5th Aviation Battalion Hangar, where members of all military branches stood up for their respective branch medley. Each medley was performed by the Leesville High School band.

Although Veterans Day is celebrated every year, for 30-year Army veteran Mark Leslie, it’s always a major opportunity to get the message to more people.

”I think Veteran’s Day is a great way to celebrate that 7% of a nation of 332 million people that served the country, to do that every year to make more people are aware of those contributions,” he said.

This year, members of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program also attended the ceremony, where they got to speak with current military members as well as retired members.

”It’s quite the generational spread and really it’s inspiring because we had so many different people from different parts of the community here on the post,” Brigadier General David S. Doyle said.

Command Sargeant Major Michael Henry shared that in the past 80 years, Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center have trained current military members to be great citizens in the community. Veterans and current military personnel are spread out in the surrounding communities, where they have adopted those same moral principles.

”It’s pretty amazing. Leesville along with Anacoco, DeRidder, New Llano and all those communities truly make up what Fort Polk is and what we are for,” Command Sargeant Major Henry said.

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