Owls to honor vets this weekend

LAFOLLETTE, TN. (WLAF)-When the LaFollette Owls gather this weekend for a “Best of Times” reunion, a special ceremony will be held to honor veterans.

On Saturday at 9 am, anyone who graduated from LaFollette High School between the years of 1955 to 1975, and served in the military, is invited for coffee and doughnuts at the Postmark Theater (old LaFollette Post Office). As that gathering unfolds, the families of four soldiers who died in Vietnam will meet at the Common Ground Coffee Shop. The families of George Heatherly, Bill Brooks Long, Dickie Reagan and Robert “Corky” Huddleston will meet in honor of their soldiers.

With a parade planned to kick off the reunion at 9:30am, the veterans will take center stage at the conclusion of the parade, according to Marvin Bolinger-Class of ’65, event organizer.

“The veterans will leave the old post office marching up East Central Avenue to the staging area,” Bolinger said. When they turn the corner, the group will be met with confetti and streamers giving them “the welcome home they didn’t get,” he said. “We want a real New York style ticker tape parade.”

Once the veterans are at the center stage at First Street, the Heatherly, Brooks, Reagan and Huddleston families will be escorted to their seats.

After contacting the Pentagon to notify it of the ceremony, the all class reunion was designated as a commemoration service. With this designation, Gold Star Family Pins will be given to the surviving members of the servicemen who died in Vietnam, Bolinger said.

This will be followed with a 21-gun salute “in honor of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice,” he said.

As this concludes, a recognition service will be held for those who served and returned.

In the event of rain, the ceremony will hopefully be moved to one of the area schools, Bolinger said.

To take part, veterans are to go to the Postmark Theater by 9 am on Saturday. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 9/16/2021- 6AM)