Veterans groups to dedicate Anchor memorial on Saturday
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
A three-ton ship’s anchor that found its home at the All Veterans Memorial is to be officially dedicated at a ceremony Saturday morning.
The anchor, from the USS Perry, a U.S. Navy destroyer, was acquired by the Soden’s Grove All Veterans Memorial Association and has had a place for a couple of years. The groundbreaking ceremony for the anchor memorial took place in August 2007.
According to memorial association member Frank Lowery, the USS Perry served from World War II until the ship was decommissioned in 2006.
“That anchor has a lot of history behind it and it represents more veterans than we’ll ever know,” Lowery said in an earlier Gazette interview.
The Department of Defense and the Department of the Navy allowed the memorial association to get the anchor for free as long as they arranged to move it to Emporia from Philadelphia. The association did so with help from the Army Reserve’s 425 Transportation Company.
Saturday’s dedication ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at the All Veterans Memorial. Larry Timmons will serve as master of ceremonies.
Included in the dedication will be a posting of the colors by a U.S. Navy color guard, an invocation by the Rev. Matt Powell of the First United Methodist Church, a speech from Chief Petty Officer A.M. Paolo and a speech about the ship and the anchor by Master Chief Petty Officer Kenneth Jones.
In case of bad weather, the ceremony will be re-scheduled.