Ceremony honors Virginia's veterans

Virginia Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs Carlos Hopkins, a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia National Guard and senior legal advisor to the Adjutant General of Virginia, gives the keynote address at the 61st Annual Commonwealth’s Veterans Day Ceremony , Nov. 11, 2017, at Dogwood Dell in Byrd Park beside the Carillon, Richmond's memorial to World War I.

The Virginia War Memorial, a division of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, sponsored the ceremony in partnership with the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. Others participants included Congressman A. Donald McEachin of Henrico, Chairman of the Virginia War Memorial Board and Delegate Richard L. Anderson of Prince William County, Dr. Clay Mountcastle, director of the Virginia War Memorial, and John L. Newby II, commissioner of the state Department of Veterans Services. Elizabeth Hawley, the wife of Virginia National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Hawley, sang the national anthem.

Read more about the significance of Veterans Day 2017 for the Virginia National Guard at go.usa.gov/xnDkZ.