In honor of Veterans Day, Thacker Memorial Funeral Home held their annual Veterans Day Remembrance Celebration Thursday morning at Annie E. Young Cemetery in Pikeville. Mountain Top News was in attendance in order to pay our respect to those veterans who have sacrificed so much for both our country and our freedom.

For many Americans, Veterans Day is an important holiday meant to celebrate the brave people who have served in the armed forces for our country. The same is true for Chase and Raleigh Wells of Thacker Memorial Funeral Home, who have hosted the Remembrance Celebration in honor of those individuals for the past few years.

Among those addressing the crowd at Thursday’s ceremony was Lee Watts, Volunteer Chaplain to the Kentucky State Capitol. We caught up with Watts after the event to ask, as a veteran himself, what this day means to him.

“I served in Iraq, but Veterans Day, to me, reminds me of the Vietnam veterans. When I cam home from Baghdad, I came home to a heroes’ welcome. Those men did not. And because of what they went through coming home is the reason that me and my comrades in arms were able to come to a heroes’ welcome. It’s the one that they should have had.”

To all of our Veterans: thank you for your service.