Jackson Township Community Band to give Veterans Day performance

The Jackson Township Community Band, directed by Matthew Huber, will perform in the rotunda of the Clay County Courthouse at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 11.

This is the JTCB’s longest continually-running event, as it was first performed on Nov. 11, 1918 when the armistice between the Allies and Germany went into effect at “the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” thus ending the Great War. It later became known as World War I when America entered World War II.

On that day in 1918, hundreds of Clay Countians descended on the courthouse grounds for information about the war’s end.

The JTCB has played on this date every year at the courthouse since then, and saw Armistice Day become Veterans Day in 1954.

A tradition dating back to 1918, the band will perform George M. Cohan’s classic war song “Over There.”

Members of American Legion Post 2 will conduct the annual ceremony at 11 a.m., keeping in tradition with “the 11th hour.”

The guest speaker will be Clay County’s own Maj. Gen. Kip Clark of the U.S. Air Force.

The concert will include “Indiana Guards” by William Kiefer, “Armistice Day Parade” and “Legion of Honor” by Fred Jewell, “George M. Cohan Patriotic Fantasy” arranged by Walter Ehret and Paul Yoder, “The Navy Hymn” arranged by James Ployhar and “Emblem of Unity” by John J. Richards.

Also included will be “The Invercargill March” by Alex Lithgow, “America” arranged by John Cacavas, “Americans We” by Henry Fillmore, “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin, “Armed Forces Salute” arranged by Bill Moffit and “Semper Fidelis,” “The U.S. Field Artillery” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa, along with Sousa’s arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The public is invited to attend this long-running salute to America’s veterans in the Clay County Courthouse.