Veterans Day

NORTHVILLIANS,

This week the Chamber will honor our Northville Military Veterans through the banner program, which pictures our vets on several light poles around downtown.  Accordingly and with great respect, I will look back on those who have served our community and our country. We have 24 Civil War veterans in the Oakwood Cemetery alone (Cady St. Cemetery), who were highlighted on the Cemetery Tour during the Heritage/Victorian days.  Additionally, we have hundreds of Veterans from WWI, WWII through the Vietnam War and beyond at our Rural Hill resting place.  
During my childhood, Armistice Day (which was changed to Veterans Day by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954), was a big deal, representing the day of November 11, 1918, which was when fighting ended for the Great War (WWI).  It was also, very notably, the day my mother was born.  In fact, the original Detroit Free Press front page was framed on our wall, with the headline of “Truce Ends War” on the 11-month, 11th day & 11th hour.  

Let’s look at Northville Armistice Day / Veterans Day events through the years:

• If not for COVID, this would have been a banner year for Northville’s American Legion, celebrating its 100th anniversary. We congratulate them for all they have done for our community.  Personally, I will always be thankful for their sponsorship of “Boys State” in 1978, and that experience is yet another reason I am honored to serve as your Mayor today.
• The Northville Record had a history of featuring veterans in its paper when they enlisted, served, and returned. Some notable ones were, of course, Lloyd H. Green, Mary Lapham, and others.
• As I eluded to earlier, the banner program by the Chamber is an outstanding remembrance of those who served proudly to defend our freedoms. The banners are on display for the entire month of November and also during the month of May. The virtual Cemetery Walk this year, a partnership effort of the Northville Historical Society and the Library, included a nice section on our local veterans.
• The VFW Post sponsors the annual Memorial Day parade and maintains the Veterans portion of the Rural Hill Cemetery which includes placing flags on all our fallen heroes’ gravesites each year. It is truly Northville’s Arlington-like cemetery area.

During this month, please slow down and thank those in uniform as well as family & friends that have served to keep the freedoms that we enjoy today.

Keep that Northville Faith!

Brian Turnbull
Mayor – Northville
BTurnbull@ci.northville.mi.us / 248.505.6849

(Reach out to me anytime or forward this communication to others interested.)

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