On Tuesday afternoon November 11, 2008Dawson County and the City of Dawsonville will host the Fourth Annual Veterans Day celebration beginning at 1:30 pm with a banquet for all area Veterans and their spouses, followed by a parade starting at 2:45 pm, and a ceremony at 3:45 pm. 

This year’s celebration will be hosted by the Dawson County Middle School. This year’s event is of special significance because we have once again been officially designated by the Veterans Administration as a “Veterans Day Regional Site”. 

Last year the Dawson County Veterans Affairs Committee, responsible for planning this event, included in the Ceremony a tribute to our Military History.  This segment of the Ceremony, which was titled “The Unwavering Line” involved a salute to the veterans of all of our country’s wars, beginning with the Revolutionary War, and included the War of 1812, Indians Wars, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War and our current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.  It was a big success, and it has been requested that we do this segment of our ceremony again this year. 

To make this a meaningful segment of the ceremony we are asking for volunteers to once again step forward and be a part of “The Unwavering Line”.  If you are a Veteran with period uniforms and/or a re-enactor, we would ask that you contact us and sign-up for this segment of the program.  We would like to have each of our Nation's Wars represented by at least two, and can go up to eight, individuals dressed in period uniforms.   

What this segment will involve is a brief mentioning of the wars, to include their dates, number of service members involved, and causality numbers.  As this information is being read, and the Dawson County High School Band is playing patriotic music, the individuals dressed in period uniforms will march out in single file, in one long Unwavering Line, and post in front of the stage.  When we have covered all the Wars, the entire line of individuals will turn and exit.  We will schedule a short practice session well in advance of the start time on November 11^th. 

Please contact Larry Freeland at 706- 216-4911 (lfreeland_25@yahoo.com) or Pam Hamalainen at 706-265-6278 (p.hamalainen@dawson.org).