MOUNT CARMEL - The Mount Carmel Area Joint Veterans Committee has announced its activities for the Memorial Day holiday.
On Saturday, May 26, veterans graves will be decorated, starting at St. Mary's Cemetery, Beaverdale. Those helping should meet at 10 a.m. at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2110. Veterans and the public are welcome.
On Sunday, May 27, the annual Memorial Day Mass will be held at 11 a.m. at the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Veterans, auxiliary and Knights of Columbus Bishop Lawrence F. Schott Assembly 959 should meet at 10:45 a.m.
At 1 p.m. Sunday, the Changing of the Colors flag ceremony will be held at Second and Oak streets. The flag will be raised in honor and memory of Samuel O'Donnell, a private in Company F, 177th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and Company G, 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry, during the Civil War.
On Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, services begin at 8:15 a.m. at American Legion Post 91, Avenue and Maple Street. Wreaths will be placed at memorials dedicated to Mount Carmel veterans who died in wars of the 20th Century. A volley of shots will be fired, "Taps" will be sounded by members of the Mount Carmel Area High School Band and the flag will be lowered to half-staff. Those participating should be present by 8 a.m.
Participants will then assemble on Maple Street and march to Second Street and onto Oak Street for a service at the memorials at Susquehanna Bank. The Mount Carmel Area High School Band, under the direction of Bernard Stellar, will play patriotic tunes, and there will be placement of wreaths, a volley of shots fired and playing of "Taps," as will be the case for each stop on the parade.
Others in the parade will be the Mount Carmel color guard, veterans, Bishop Schott Assembly 959, Scouts, junior league baseball players and Robert Sokol and his restored 1943 Ford World War II Jeep. Others wanting to march should be at the Legion by 8:15 a.m.
The parade will proceed east on Second Street to Hickory Street, south on Hickory to Third and west on Third to Oak Street, where a service will be held at the World War I plaque at Union National Bank.
Joined by emergency service vehicles, the parade will head west on Third Street to St. Mary's Cemetery, where the Bishop Schott Assembly will hold its service at the memorial to the late bishop.
The parade will then proceed to Mount Carmel Cemetery, where Legion Post 91 will hold its service at the grave of Harry I. Geist, one of the veterans for whom the post is named. Geist was a corporal in Company B, First United States Engineers; he was killed in action in France during World War I on July 20, 1918.
James A. Garfield Camp 34, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, will also hold its service at that cemetery at the grave of Alfred Ayres, a private in Company G, 129th Regiment, Pennsylvnaia Volunteer Infantry.
From Mount Carmel Cemetery, those assembled will travel by vehicles to St. Joseph's Cemetery in Locust Gap for services by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2110 and Disabled American Veterans Chapter 129.
Following the programs, food and refreshments will be available at the American Legion at 11 a.m.
Organized in 1954, the Mount Carmel Area Joint Veterans Committee is comprised of American Legion Post 91, VFW Post 2110 and its ladies auxiliary, DAV Chapter 129, Garfield Camp 34 and Bishop Schott Assembly 959.