WWII Veterans, Pilgrims Set for Remembrance Events

World War II veteran Simon Gurdal, who served with the Belgian Army and Allied forces, is being celebrated for his 100th birthday in Hendersonville, North Carolina, after recently visiting Washington memorials with Blue Ridge Honor Flight. In California, 105-year-old former RAF tail gunner Ron Holdsworth, who completed 32 bombing missions, is to receive a replica of his wartime uniform at a Remembrance Day tribute organized by his family and British representatives. In Belgium, a group from a Motherwell parish is traveling to honor Sergeant James Robertson Cowan, a local soldier killed in 1918 alongside the minister’s great-uncle; parishioners have also researched and documented Cowan’s story.