San Rafael, CA – A journalist and longtime U.S. Air Force reservist who wrote a book about a Medal of Honor recipient will serve as a keynote speaker for Marin County’s annual Veterans Day ceremony on November 11 at the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael.
Matt Proietti, who lives in Penn Valley (Nevada County), recently published “At All Costs,” a biography of Chief Master Sgt. Dick Etchberger, a career Air Force sergeant who posthumously received the Medal of Honor in 2010 for actions taken in a mountaintop battle in Laos four decades earlier.
Proietti joined the Air Force in 1984 and the reserves in 1988. He is an award-winning journalist and Air Force public affairs officer who was recently reassigned from the Pentagon to serve with the 3rd Combat Camera Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
The annual Veterans Day event, presented by the Marin County United Veterans Council and sponsored by the County of Marin, honors all Americans who served in the line of duty with our military forces, with a special emphasis on Marin’s own heroes. Event officials are actively seeking veterans from recent overseas conflicts in the Middle East to take part in the ceremony and become active in veterans affairs in Marin.
The ceremony will feature the voices of renowned Marin County entertainer Susan Zelinsky and her daughter, Ruby, plus patriotic songs played by the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District Non-Marching Band, aka the Sewer Band. Cadets from the U.S. Air Force Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) based at Novato High School will present the colors.
After the indoor ceremony, the program continues outdoors in front of the memorial statues on the Avenue of the Flags. A moment of silence will be observed at 11:11 a.m. in honor of the 97th anniversary of the World War I armistice agreement, which was signed at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Wreaths will be laid at the foot of the statues to honor fallen comrades. Doughnuts and coffee will be served in the Redwood Foyer of the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium after the outdoor event.
The event begins with music at 9:30 a.m., and the official ceremony begins at 10. For more information, contact Ray Mullin of the Marin United Veterans Council at rayzer44@yahoo.com.