A Salute to Veterans ceremony brought hundreds of retired and active members of the U.S. Military to the USS Lexington Museum on the Bay in Corpus Christi on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

All military were granted free admission for the day, which included a visit and remarks by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. The 2 p.m. ceremony honored all branches of the military for their service to nation.

Among veterans attending were two retirees who were stationed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Joseph Catenazzo and Bob Batterson, both 96 years old, met for the first time at the Saturday ceremony in Corpus Christi. Batterson is a regular volunteer on the USS Lexington.

The annual ceremony includes the sliding of a wreath into the water in memory of the soldiers who lost their lives during World War I.

Observed each year on Nov. 11, Veterans Day commemorates the end of the First World War. The armistice ending hostilities between Germany and the allied nations, including the United States, was signed at 11 a.m. (French time) on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne, located about 37 miles north of Paris.

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