By Pat Hammert/Staff Writer

Some two dozen local veterans of America’s armed forces were saluted at the Veterans Day Assembly at El Reno High School on Friday.

Senior students who attended Boys State and Girls State last summer presented the program and the El Reno High School Band and El Reno High School Dazzling Melodies and Harmonizers provided patriotic music.

Veterans in the audience stood to applause as the band played their respective service’s anthems in “Armed Forces on Parade.”

Nov. 11 commemorates veterans because the World War I armistice was signed on that day in 1918.

“On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” said Girls Stater Paige Haynes.

In 1938, Congress made “Armistice Day” a legal holiday, observed annually since then. After 1954, World War II and the Korean War, Congress changed the name to Veterans Day.

There are more than 23.5 million American veterans living in the United States and abroad. About 340,000 live in Oklahoma.

The high school’s veteran salute is an event held each year as far back as anyone alive can remember.

The assembly also kicked off the Gift for the Yanks program in which students raise money for Christmas presents to veterans in the hospital during the holiday season. El Reno’s is the only high school in the nation that continues the tradition that started after World War II.