LEWISTON — Another group of veterans’ names will soon be remembered in stone.

On Thursday — Veterans Day — the Lewiston-Auburn Veterans Council will unveil their 20th stone tablet in the city’s Veterans Memorial Park.

The move will extend the semicircle at the center of the park and, more importantly, add to the remembrance of all area soldiers.

“It’s unbelievable,” council Chairman Paul Bernard said as he began adding the names. The new total will be 4,365. “I’ve already begun collecting names for the next stone.”

The unveiling ceremony will be the centerpiece of a daylong recognition of veterans that will also include breakfast, lunch, live music and color guards. The new monument to the Tomb of the Unknowns will be displayed. Veterans will also unveil  a battleship gun that had stood since the 1980s outside the Brunswick Naval Air Station’s Chapel.

It now sits prominently in the park, pointed upriver as if to defend the cities from attack by Turner.

It’s unknown whether the 5-inch, 51-caliber gun ever saw action. (Its size is a reference to the diameter of each round of ammunition it fired.)

At the Brunswick base, which is scheduled to close next year, the gun had been paired with another, but that one was donated to an American Legion Hall in Manchester, Bernard said.

Cote Crane of Auburn moved the gun at no cost. In the park, donations to the council helped fund a new granite base.

It won’t move again, Bernard said. The steel barrel alone stretches about 20 feet long.

“I don’t know how many tons it weighs,” Bernard said.

In the Navy, guns such as these were used as a cruiser’s main weapon or as secondary surface guns aboard battleships.

Like so many of the veterans on the stone tablets, it likely fought in World War II.

Anyone who has served in the U.S. Armed Services — living or dead, in peace or in war — may be recognized on the stone tablets. Applicants must have proof of their service in order for their names to be inscribed.

Thursday’s ceremony at the park is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. with an invocation by the Rev. Maurice Morin.

[email protected]

Lewiston-Auburn Veterans Day events

Fourth annual free breakfast, 7 to 8 a.m., Lewiston High School

The U.S. Army Cadet program will be serving eggs, ham, beans, biscuits, coffee, juice, water and fruit to veterans and their families.

Veterans Musical Tribute, 9:30 a.m, Lewiston Armory, 65 Central Ave.

The tribute includes music from local high school bands, the Just Us Singers and a review of color guard units from various veterans groups, the police department and the fire department.

Third annual Firehouse Chili luncheon, 12:15 p.m., William Rogers American Legion Post 153, Auburn

Crews from six fire houses will serve chili and cornbread. The fire department color guard will also hold a brief ceremony.

Veterans Memorial Park Ceremonies, 1:30 p.m., Main Street, Lewiston

The 2oth memorial stone, a 51-mm Navy gun and an anchor will be unveiled.

Church service honoring veterans, 6:30 p.m., Holy Family Church, 607 Sabattus St., Lewiston