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Vets Day Event to Include Forums

By Mark Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: November 3, 2007

OLDSMAR, Fla. - OLDSMAR, Fla. - This year area veterans will be able to get answers to some of their questions at the city's annual Veterans Day Ceremony.

Members of the city's Veterans Committee and Richard Whitmyer, the liaison for military and veterans affairs from the office of U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, will be at the ceremony.

At the Nov. 11, 3 p.m., observance, to be held at Veterans Memorial Park, experts will answer questions ranging from veterans healthcare to benefits and pension information, said Holly LiBaire, city communications coordinator.

Veterans Memorial Park is at 250 Shore Drive.

Oldsmar has no central clearinghouse for veterans information and this will be a good opportunity to get answers to individual questions each may have, she said.

At the Veterans Day observance, Oldsmar Mayor Jim Ronecker and other City Council members will officiate.

The keynote speaker will be Lt. Col. Robert Redding. Redding is commander of the 6th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa.

At the conclusion of the ceremony there will be a roll call of the 60 some veterans whose names recently were engraved on the park's semicircular wall of remembrance.

Once per year, the memorial's granite walls are etched with the name, rank, branch of service and date of service of veterans whose names have been added. There is no charge for the opportunity.

Friends or relatives can even make an application on behalf of a deceased Oldsmar resident who served in the Armed Forces.

The Veterans Day tribute was started several years ago by then-Mayor Jerry Beverland. In its early days the ceremony was held in the small Veteran's plaza in front of City Hall.

The event has since been moved to the site of the 5-acre former Kumar property, now home to Veterans Memorial Park.

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