Flyover part of Sherman Station Veterans Week

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What exciting news Janice Charette, auxiliary president of the Sherman Veterans of Foreign Wars, had to tell me late last week when I called to check in with her on the continuing events of Veterans Week 2002, which is being celebrated through Friday at Katahdin Elementary School on Route 11 in Sherman Station.

“We’ve just learned that we’re going to have an F-16 Missing Man flyover,” she said of a special added attraction for Thursday.

Charette told me that the hard-working, 20-member Veterans Week committee had just been informed that the Vermont National Guard would send its Green Mountain Boys in for the F-16 flyover in the Missing Man formation at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, July 25.

“We’re really thrilled,” she said.

The Vietnam Moving Wall is open 24 hours a day and admission is free.

It is just outside the school, “and people can’t miss it,” Charette said of those driving along Route 11 by the school.

Today is Korean War Veterans Day, with awards and certificates presented to all Korean War veterans who attend the 6 p.m. ceremony at the school, which will be followed by a patriotic cantata at 8 p.m. and a flag retirement ceremony at 9 p.m.

World War II Veterans Day begins with awards to those veterans at noon Tuesday, July 23, followed by the movie “Pearl Harbor” at 3 p.m. in the school gymnasium. Taps will be played at 6 p.m., and the Katahdin Canaries will sing vintage music at 7 p.m.

Maine Air National Guard helicopters fly in at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 24, in honor of Gulf War, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia and Afghanistan veterans, who will be honored at 6 p.m. at the school.

The movie “Rain” plays at 3 p.m. Thursday, July 25, in the school gymnasium to open Vietnam War Veterans Day.

Certificates will be presented to those veterans at 6 p.m., followed by the Green Mountain Boys flyover and a speech by Brig. Gen. Joseph Tinkham of the Maine Army National Guard.

The final event is Canadian Vietnam Veterans Day, with awards presented to those attending veterans at 11 a.m. Friday, July 26, at the school.

The closing ceremony, “In Remembrance of September 11,” begins at 2 p.m. Friday, July 26, followed by the dismantling of the moving wall at 4 p.m. and a public farewell supper at 5 p.m., in the gymnasium.

Charette and all who have worked on this event are to be congratulated for their tireless devotion to the project.

I hope those of you who attend, and view the moving wall, are as humbled before it as I was, especially when you find a name you know.

Gene Staffiere, Northern Maine Division director of the March of Dimes in Brewer, reports that that organization is sponsoring its first Day-Night Golf Tournament, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, at Jato Highland Golf Course on Town Farm Road in Lincoln.

The format is a nine-hole scramble during the day and a nine-hole scramble at night, and the last nine holes will be played with special light-stick golf balls, which will be provided by the tournament organizers.

The $35 registration fee includes 18 holes of golf, a barbecue dinner and prizes.

You can register by calling 794-2433.

Money raised through the tournament will be used for research and education to help prevent birth defects.

One of the special features of the Fort Knox Bay Festival, planned for Friday through Sunday in the Bucksport area, is the fireworks display Saturday evening.

If you are 21 or older and would like to see this display from a special vantage point, you might want to take the Festival Fireworks Cruise hosted by Friends of Fort Knox.

The “Good Return,” captained by Melissa Terry, which operates a daily charter cruise out of Belfast, will depart from the Bucksport town dock at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 27, travel down the Penobscot River to Fort Point, and return to view the fireworks from the water.

During the cruise, George Buker, author of “The Penobscot Expedition,” will discuss the history of the Penobscot River.

A fund-raiser for the group that is working to continue to preserve Fort Knox and enhance its educational, cultural and economic value for the people of Maine, the cruise also will feature light fare, a cash bar and prizes.

Tickets for the cruise are $40 for Friends members and $50 for nonmembers.

Tickets are available the Fort Knox Gift Shop at Fort Knox on Route 174 in Prospect, at Bend in the Road on Verona Island, or by calling the Friends office at 469-6553.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.