DVS to Also Host Veterans Day Ceremonies in Angel Fire and T or C

New Mexico Department of Veterans Services (DVS) Secretary Jack Fox is scheduled to give the Keynote Address at the annual Veterans Day Ceremony in Albuquerque presented by the United Veterans Council and the city of Albuquerque on Sunday, November 11, at 11 a.m. at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial (1100 Louisiana Blvd. SE./just north of Gibson Blvd. SE).DVS will be hosting an 11 a.m. Veterans Day ceremony at its Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Angel Fire, and a 10 a.m. ceremony at its State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences. DVS Deputy Secretary Alan Martinez will give the Keynote Address at the Angel Fire ceremony. DVS Health Care Coordination Director Mitchell Lawrence will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the ceremony at the State Veterans Home, with the Keynote Address given by U.S. Army Colonel Stephen Ward, Garrison Commander at White Sands Missile Range.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is an official national holiday honoring our nation’s men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces.

The holiday traces its beginnings to November 11, 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson signed a non-binding proclamation commemorating the one-year anniversary of end of World War I. He referred to the date as “Armistice Day,” in honor of the armistice signed a year earlier between the Allies and Germany —on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month—to formally end the war.

Seven years later, Congress subsequently passed a resolution in 1926 urging all state governors to observe the new holiday. But it took another twelve years before Congress formally declared Armistice Day a national holiday in 1938.

In 1954, Congress declared the day as one to honor the service of all veterans—and for the day to be now known as Veterans Day.