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Hundreds Honor Veterans At Pinellas VA Hospital

News Channel 8 photo by KATY HENNIG

Veterans gather at Bay Pines veterans hospital in Pinellas County today to commemorate Veterans Day.

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By ROD CHALLENGER

News Channel 8

Published: November 11, 2008

Teenager Ruth Lewis was one of several hundred people at today's Veterans Day ceremony at the Bay Pines veterans hospital in Pinellas County. She thinks people should remember and honor veterans more than just one or two days a year, though.

"Most of the time they are only remembered on special holidays like Veterans Day, Memorial Day," said Lewis, 14, of Clearwater.

Lewis put her feelings into a poem read at the beginning of today's ceremony. It began with the question, "Have we remembered today?"

"So let us ne'er forger that for our soldiers, we must pray,'' the poem says. "Have you remembered today?"

Donna Hedger, 40, of Clearwater also came to the observance. She said she "wanted to come out and thank some of these women and men who served my country."

When the program ended, she went up to several veterans and shook their hands.

Hedger said she wanted to "tell them how thankful I am for their sacrifices and for God to bless them because I don't take those sacrifices lightly."

The color guards of several veterans' organizations presented the American flag as veterans of all ages and all wars stood and saluted. An honor guard fired a traditional rifle salute and a bugler played taps to end the ceremony.

The Bay Pines event was just one of several Veterans Day ceremonies around the Bay area today.

Veterans Day was once known as Armistice Day, marking the armistice that ended World War I on this date in 1918. Congress changed the name to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor all those who served and are serving in the U.S. military.

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