FAIRMONT – Scores of retired military veterans live out their lives quietly in Lumberton and Robeson County.

In a lot of cases, the servicemen and servicewomen were stationed nearby at Fort Bragg and the former Pope Air Force Base during their careers.

Saturday brings the national observance of Veterans Day, which originally was known as Armistice Day. The federal holiday, intended to honor those who have served in the nation’s Armed Forces, is observed yearly on Nov. 11.

For one, the town of Fairmont will be holding its annual Veteran’s Day Ceremony on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.

Officially, the town has been conducting a special ceremony for those who served since 2005, Mayor Charles Kemp said Thursday.

“As long as I serve in an elected capacity in this town,” he said, “we’ll hold services for Veterans Day and Memorial Day.”

Kemp called Veterans Day “tremendously important. Probably more important to me than any other holiday. I have friends – two friends who went to college at N.C. Wesleyan College with me,” he said of the Rocky Mount-based private Presbyterian school now known as N.C. Wesleyan University). “Both had academic issues and got drafted. They were killed in Vietnam. I knew them very well.

Kemp spoke of the freedoms and choices that are made by Americans that most take for granted. “We make decisions freely. Veterans never had those choices,” he said. “They’re told what to do. They’re shot at sometimes. Sometimes standing in waist-deep water. Away from friends.

“So we owe them at least a day.”

The program will be held in the Fairmont-South Robeson Heritage Center on Main Street in the downtown district.

Robeson County Commissioner and former Army soldier John Cummings is the scheduled featured speaker.

Bradley Little, a student at Fairmont High School, won an essay contest coordinated by Kemp and history instructor Kaydean Francis. The title of the contest was “Why is Veterans Day Important?”

Though Little will be unable to participate in person during the Saturday program, the release said, his mother is expected to read her son’s essay during the ceremony.

His winning effort won him a cash prize and a certificate of recognition which the mayor will present to Little’s mother on behalf of her son.

Fairmont High School Junior ROTC cadets will present the posting of the colors.

The town welcomes veterans and guests to the ceremony that will honor all veterans for their dedicated service to the country.

“… Let us remember all who have served, living or dead, and those who still face danger in foreign lands,” states a town of Fairmont news release. “We are all grateful for your courage, loyalty and patriotism.”

Kemp called the late Army Maj. Gen. Paul Oliver – a World War II combat infantry officer and father of Shep Oliver, the current president of the Rotary Club of Fairmont – perhaps the most famous military member to come out of Fairmont.

Upon his retirement from service, the men of his regiment honored him with the following words: “Oliver is a soldier’s general who commands through respect and leads by example.”

Town Manager Jerome Chestnut served as a First Sgt. in the Army, and town Commissioners Jeffrey McCree and Terry Evans also served in the Army, Kemp said.

According to the news release, all veterans in attendance will be presented patriotic bracelets and given an opportunity to recount the details of their military service at the end of the ceremony.