Birmingham Honors Veterans During Annual Ceremony

Dozens of Birmingham-area residents, elected officials and friends and family of members of the U.S. military paid tribute to veterans Monday during the annual Veteran's Day wreath-laying ceremony in Shain Park. 

Donning umbrellas, and hand-held American flags, participants watched the presentation of colors and formal raising of Old Glory on the park's flagpole by members of the Michigan Wing of the Civil Air Patrol before placing a wreath honoring all local veterans at the base of Birmingham's Civil War monument. 

The event is co-sponsored by the city of Birmingham and Daughters of the American Revolution Piety Hill chapter. 

"We thank veterans who are co-workers, family members, neighbors, friends, or even people we pass on the streets. People that contributed to the freedom of our country. Ordinary citizens that performed extraordinary things." said speaker Ingrid Tighe, a retired captain with the U.S. Army's Signal Corps that served in Iraq and Kosovo. 
 
"A veteran is someone who wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to and including his or her life," she continued. "It's an honor to be a veteran."