(MADISON) - Locally, there will be an 11:00 a.m. ceremony on Wednesday, November 11, on Veterans Day, at Maurer Hall at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at Union Grove. The Veterans Home is located just outside of Union Grove at the Southern Wisconsin Center. Maurer Hall is located on Walnut Drive between Gates and Boland Halls. Veterans, veterans’ families and the public are invited to attend.

The keynote speaker will be Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary John A. Scocos. Secretary Scocos was appointed the Secretary of the Department on October 21, 2003 and as the Secretary he is the chief advocate for the over four hundred twenty-seven thousand veterans of Wisconsin. He recently returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq joining the nearly 28,000 from Wisconsin who have served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

He is a veteran with 30 years of active and reserve military service with the U.S. Army, including service overseas and stateside. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1979, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1981 following his graduation from the Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC). He has commanded military units from platoon to battalion level. He continues his service in the U.S. Army Reserves as a Colonel.

Speaking also will be Brigadier General Dominic Cariello, the Assistant Adjutant General for Readiness and Training for the Wisconsin Army National Guard. Most recently he was selected for a dual-hat position as the Deputy Commanding General, Training Support Division (West) for the United States First Army. General Cariello’s previous assignments include serving as the Task Force Wisconsin Commander for the Hurricane Katrina disaster and as a Task Force Wisconsin Commander for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Master of Ceremonies will be Randy Nitschke, Commandant of the Wisconsin Veterans Home at Union Grove. The No Next of Kin Funeral Honors Team will post the colors and Taps will be sounded by Carly Nixon. Vietnam War Veteran (Purple Heart Recipient) Chuck Sweetman will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Veterans from their respective service branch will post the service flags. Pastors Chuck and Sean Sweetman will offer the Invocation and Benediction. The National Anthem will be sung by Jeni Swedberg and the Wisconsin Veterans Home-Union Grove Member Choir will perform during the ceremony.

Operated by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) the veterans’ home on the campus of the Southern Wisconsin Center was first opened in August 2001. The campus includes three co-located assisted living facilities. These include:  Shemanske Hall and Fairchild Hall licensed Community Based Residential Facilities. Opening in 2004 was Gates Hall, a Residential Care Apartment Complex. Boland Hall, a 120-Bed Skilled Nursing Facility, and Maurer Hall, the Activity Center, opened in 2006. Also operated by WDVA on the Southern Wisconsin Center at Union Grove is the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

WDVA Secretary Scocos said, “I encourage all citizens, young and aged, to honor veterans not just this day, but throughout the year.”

The WDVA will also be hosting Veterans Day ceremonies at the Marden Center Multi-Purpose Room at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King, at 10:30 a.m. and at the Northern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Spooner at 1:00 p.m.

For further information about the Veterans Day Ceremony at the Veterans Home at Union Grove call (262) 878-6700. For information on Veterans Day, go to www.WisVets.com/VeteransDay. For information on other veterans programs and services visit www.WisVets.com or call 1-800-WIS-VETS (947-8387).