photo by: Shelley Hanson

Cub Scout Pack 78 performs a skit during the Moundsville Veterans Day Ceremony at Central Elementary School on Tuesday.

The city of Moundsville honored its veterans during a Veterans Day ceremony Tuesday at the Central Elementary School gymnasium.

Danielle Harmon, a retired master sergeant in the United States Air Force, opened the ceremony and also served as its master of ceremonies.

The Moundsville Honor Guard conducted the presentation of colors and later a 21-gun salute and retired the colors.

Cub Scout Pack 78 led the Pledge of Allegiance and conducted a patriotic skit. Paige Williams sang the national anthem. The Rev. Wesley Howsare led the invocation and benediction.

The Opus Music Club sang a song that recognized each branch of the military and sang other special music as well.

The POW/MIA ceremony was conducted by Jim Robinson, a retired sergeant and former POW.

Musician Stevie Lynn sang Country Roads.

Gary Rider introduced the event’s special speaker, Pete Mitchell, a retired major with the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division. Mitchell, who retired in 1980, served in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. He also served in many other countries as a commissary officer.

Mitchell said he enjoyed his time in the military.

“I had a strong sense of patriotism at a young age,” Mitchell said.

He noted the hardest part of serving was being away from his family especially when his children were first born and young.

He added that learning how to jump from an airplane, though a dangerous job, was quite fun. He reminisced about the instructions he received. He was told to lean his body out, keep his hands and feet in while searching the air and ground for any possible obstructions. And also to look for the landing zone before jumping.

Mitchell is the father of Moundsville Police Department Chief Tom Mitchell, who was in attendance.