The village of Porterdale and CARE will hold its second annual Veterans Day event on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park at intersection of Broad and Elm streets.

Val Archer, who served with The 332nd Fighter Group known as the Tuskegee Airmen, will speak at the second City of Porterdale Veterans Day Ceremony, Wednesday, Nov. 11, said Linda Finger, chair of the CARE Committee.

The ceremony will be held jointly with the celebration of Porterdale’s recent designation as a Purple Heart City.

Archer, 86, enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 15, and received his basic training in Wichita Falls, Texas. He received further technical training at Geiger Field, Spokane, Washington and Chanute Field, Illinois.

Assigned to the Tuskegee Airmen, he was stationed at Lockbourne Air Base in Columbus, Ohio, from January 1946 to September 1949. He was an aircraft mechanic and, later, an aircraft instrument specialist. He saw active duty in Korea, Japan, Guam, the Marshall Islands and Europe.

Archer also served as the President of the Atlanta Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., and is one of the estimated 16,000-19,000 participants of the “Tuskegee Experience” (1941-1949) who was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony held inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on March 29, 2007.