Veterans past and present will be honored Wednesday on the south lawn of the County Courthouse on the Square as the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 920 presents a program for Veterans Day.

In the past, the annual Veterans Day program was put on by the county’s veterans service office. Dennis Boots, a Vietnam veteran, said veterans service officials were busy with so many requests for appearances that the VVA stepped in.

“We will be celebrating Veterans Day on the 11th of November at 11 a.m., when the armistice [that ended World War I] was signed back in 1918,” said Boots, who is a retired captain in the Army combat engineers. It will be a brief ceremony, about 25 minutes, to honor those veterans and their service, just as we have done in the past.”

The event will also include a singing quartet and the presentation of the colors.

Retired Col. Larry Purcell, the keynote speaker, said he plans to discuss the holiday’s origin and the number of veterans that exist today, among other things during his talk.

“There are, since World War I, 33 million people who have served in uniform — about 23 million living veterans, nearly 8 percent of our population,” Purcell said. “We want to talk about all those and certainly going to recognize all of the active-duty people that are there.”

While World War II and Vietnam veterans are often the focus of Veterans Day events, Boots said he thinks today’s service members are being held in high regard, if not higher, than past veterans.

“They are being held so far above my generation, I am proud to say they are being recognized for their service in far greater numbers than my generation,” he said. “I don’t want that to come across as sour grapes. I want to make sure they get the honor they have due them, [and] hope there will be a number of those there that day.”

The public is invited and Boots hopes for a good representation of youths, veterans and residents.

As for the younger generations, celebrating the day is extremely important for them to remember what service the soldiers have done, Boots said.

“They have given their lives, their blood, their time,” Boots said. “It’s important today’s generation be not permitted to forget when Veterans Day, Memorial Day … when those national holidays are celebrated each year on the calendar, they be aware there are men and women out there standing in the gap so they may continue to enjoy their freedom.”

BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .