Veterans Day is on Monday, but the Marine Corps is celebrating its 238 anniversary on Sunday, Nov. 10. In honor of that, the American Legion Post 253 in North Webster will be hosting an party.

“As a younger veteran I look to the older guys, and I thought we needed to celebrate them more,” says Jeff Spickelmier, event chairman for the post. Spickelmier says the entertainment committee decided it wanted to celebrate the military branches’ birthdays more heavily in the upcoming year.

As part of the celebration there will be a traditional cake cutting ceremony, a common practice at Marine Corps birthday balls. “We take the oldest marine and the youngest marine, and they cut the cake,” says Spickelmier. “It represents a passing of the torch.”

“My first experience with cutting the cake was in Guantanamo Bay,” says Spickelmier, who served in the Air Force. “I was stationed there for eight months. While I was down there I went to a Marine Corps ball.”

“You can’t let traditions die,” he says. “Vietnam veterans are getting up in years and the World War II vets, and you have to thank them.”

In addition to the cake cutting ceremony, local classic rock band Short Term Memories will be performing. “It’s an ‘open night,’” says Spickelmier. “Anybody can come and participate.”

Festivities begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at the American Legion Post 253 on SR 13. The band is set to play for several hours, but the event could last well after the music stops. “You get the old marines going and telling war stories,” says Spickelmier, “it will carry on.”