Once again, the men and women who served the nation’s armed forces will be honored on Monday, as the annual Dowagiac Memorial Day parade returns to the city.

The observation begins at 10:30 a.m., with a ceremony in front of city hall. The parade itself will step off around 11 a.m., moving down Front Street, across Division Street, and then heading down Riverside Drive, where it will stop at the cemetery.

“The procession will do a brief honor ceremony for Navy veterans while we cross over the Mill Pond,” said Jim Benedix, one of the organizers for this year’s parade. “From there, they will proceed to the cemetery, where the VFW will hold a service for veterans across all the armed services.”

The events should wrap up around noon, Benedix said.

The guest speaker at this year’s ceremony at city hall will be Lance Lechlitner, a member of the Masonic Lodge who had served a combined 21 years with the U.S. Army and Navy. The veteran and lifelong Dowagiac resident served two stints in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a stint in the Horn of Africa for Operation Enduring Freedom before his retirement.

“I’m very honored that I get to come back home to Dowagiac and speak with the people I knew and grew up with,” Lechlitner said.

Among the units participating in this year’s parade will be Miss Dowagiac Mackenzie Whitmyer, members of the Kalamazoo Pipe Band, the Dowagiac Union High School Marching Band and the high school robotics team, Benedix said. A number of other businesses will also be participating this year as well.

“This is more of a local parade,” Benedix said. “It’s not huge, but it’s tradition. We’re following the same route that we’ve been doing since I was a kid.”

Benedix and other members of the local Masonic Lodge have been organizing the annual celebration since 2000, taking over from Lawrence Starrett, who helped put together the parade for many years. Nearly a dozen lodge members will be on hand on Monday morning for the ceremonies.

“The recognition of our veterans is important,” Benedix said. “This is something that small towns do well, and people around here come out for.”