Members of the state's House of Representatives will host a Missouri Vietnam Veterans Day on Thursday at the Capitol.
The event will begin at 8:30 a.m., when the veterans and their families are to meet with representatives in the House Lounge. Speakers for the event are Lt. Gov. Mike Parson and Speaker of the House Todd Richardson.
Veterans - more than 70, according to state Rep. Pat Conway, D-St. Joseph - then will be recognized on the House floor.
The University of Missouri will host a coffee-and-doughnuts reception for the veterans and their families on the third floor of the Rotunda.
To avoid traffic and long walks, veterans are asked to park in the lot at the Jefferson City Board of Education building at 315 Dunklin St. Volunteers and local car dealers have agreed to drive the veterans to the Capitol, where they will be given access at the guard shack, so they won't have to circumvent large areas of construction.
Also in celebration of Vietnam Veterans Day, national cemeteries will host wreath-laying ceremonies at noon. The ceremony at Jefferson City National Cemetery, 1024 E. McCarty St., will be brief, said Mike Betts, program support assistant at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, which operates the local cemetery.
Organizers will lay a wreath near the main rostrum then have a short prayer.