City Announces Veterans Day Observances

On Monday, November 11, 2024 City of Portsmouth offices, Recreation Department facilities and the Portsmouth Public Library will be closed in observance of Veterans Day. Trash collection will be combined with Tuesday collection and there will be no yard waste collected on either day. A parking holiday (no charge at on-street parking meters), will also be observed on Monday, November 11.

Joshua Denton, Commander of VFW Post 168, reports that Veterans Day will be commemorated in Portsmouth with a wreath-laying at the Soldiers & Sailors Monument in Goodwin Park on Monday, November 11, 2024 at 11 am. A post-event gathering will take place at the American Legion Post (96 Islington Street). In case of rain, the event will move indoors to the Legion.

Post Commander Denton announced that the keynote speaker will be Chief Master Sargent Kevin Reiter, Command Chief Master Sergeant for the 157th Air Refueling Wing at Pease Air National Guard Base. Previously, he was the Command and Control Superintendent for the Wing. He now serves as the Wing’s senior enlisted leader supporting the Air National Guard at Pease – the sole Wing equipped with KC-46 aircraft – and its 1,300 personnel. Chief Reiter has served the Air National Guard for more than 21 years in a variety of roles. 

The commemoration includes remarks by Mayor Deaglan McEachern, the invocation and benediction by Reverend Ellen Quaadgras of South Church, and music by the Portsmouth High School Clipper Band including the singing of the National Anthem led by former Mayor Robert Lister.

On Thursday, November 14, 2024 the City of Portsmouth Recreation Department invites all Portsmouth veterans and a guest to a free French toast breakfast starting at 9 am at the Senior Activity Center (125 Cottage Street). Each attending veteran will receive a small gift of thanks from the Senior Activity Center and an 8-inch pie from the Edgewood Center to take home. At 11 am award-winning songwriter Curt Bessette and vocalist Jenn Kurtz will perform "Stories with Our Mothers and Fathers: Veterans Tribute." The Veterans Breakfast is an annual tradition in Portsmouth. To make the required reservation for the Veterans Breakfast, call 603.610.4433.

Veterans Day is observed at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, to mark the moment the armistice silenced the guns in 1918 and ended World War I. Frank Booma of Portsmouth, for whom the Post is named, was killed in France in July 1918; and the Post was formed in 1919 by Portsmouth veterans of that war.