WEST PARIS – Ring-McKeen American Legion Post members paraded along Main Street and held a memorial service at the War Memorial on Tuesday morning to honor America’s veterans.

The Veterans Day parade was led by an honor guard of local veterans, with scouts and school children from the Agnes Gray and Legion Memorial schools included.

At the War Memorial, Lloyd Waterhouse of West Paris, pastor of Grace Fellowship in Oxford, opened the service with a prayer of thanks for those who served.

“We have a proud heritage of freedom but it has come at a great cost of lives. Because of the men and women who have fought and given their lives to protect our freedom we are still the greatest nation in the world. May God always bless America,” Waterhouse said.

Maureen Ilsley marched in the parade carrying a picture of her son, Robert, who will be redeploying to Iraq for the second time since 2006 with the 172nd Engineer Battalion.

“I march with Robbie’s picture every year till he can be here to do it,” she said.

Ilsley said another West Paris native, Austin Toothaker, will be going to Afghanistan with the Air Force in January. At the service, Ilsley read a short letter sent by her son.

“If you don’t hear from me for awhile, don’t get worried,” Robert wrote. “I’m just going through the cycle.”

American Legion Auxiliary member Bertha DeHaas said, “We are here to remember Veterans Day and we hope our country’s young people will pick up where us older people leave off.”

Throughout the ceremony, patriotic poems and prayers were read and songs sung by the 50 people attending.

DeHaas, who has organized the Veterans Day ceremonies for the past 20 years, thanked people for coming out on the cold fall morning to remember those who served their country.

Staff writer M. Dirk Langeveld contributed to this report.