Colonel Luke R. Donohue (U.S. Army-retired) will serve as the keynote speaker for Marin County’s annual Veterans Day ceremony on Monday, November 11, inside Exhibit Hall at the Marin County Fairgrounds in San Rafael.
The host of the ceremony is the Marin County United Veterans Council, representing local Veterans organizations and military family support groups. The doors will open at “zero nine hundred” (9 AM) and a 30-minute concert of patriotic music by the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District Non-Marching Band, fondly known as the Sewer Band, will kick off the event at 9:30 AM. The ceremony then starts at 10 AM to mark the 106th anniversary of the end of World War I, which took place in the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. As per tradition, “Taps” will be played at the Marin event during that 11th hour.
Donohue, a Larkspur resident, enlisted in June 1989 to start an Army career that lasted 33 years. His leadership in Special Forces, Rangers, and infantry units endured through Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, Operation Uphold Democracy, Operation Joint Guardian and many unnamed operations around the world. More recently, Donohue has worked for the American Institute in Taiwan, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the first federal COVID-19 vaccination efforts, and the U.S. Army War College, among others. He is now Director of Administration for the Presidio Trust in San Francisco.
Veterans Day is always celebrated on November 11 regardless which day of the week on which it falls. It will be observed as a closed-door holiday by the County of Marin, government offices, and many businesses.
The annual Veterans Day event, sponsored by the County of Marin, honors all Americans who served in the line of duty with our military forces, with a special emphasis on Marin’s own heroes. Event officials are encouraging veterans from recent overseas conflicts to attend the ceremony at Exhibit Hall (20 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael) and become active in Marin’s veterans groups.
Joining Donohue on stage will be Sean Stephens, the event’s master of ceremonies and Marin County’s Veterans Service Officer. In addition to the Sewer Band’s military tunes, the music program will include the singing voices from Til’ Dawn, Marin’s premiere a capella vocal group for young people. After a closing prayer, the ceremony will wrap up with free coffee and doughnuts plus a display of vintage military vehicles from the Joe Garbarino collection.
The Marin County Veterans Services Office is a division of the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It has a staff of four people to provide timely assistance to the estimated 8,000 military vets living in the county. Veterans’ most acute needs are in applying for federal benefits, pension claims, and health care services. Most veterans need more assistance as they get older, and younger veterans from recent foreign conflicts need aid as they assimilate back to civilian life.
Mondays through Thursdays, veterans can contact the office staff by calling (415) 473-6193 or by email.
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