(Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

MARIETTA — The public is invited to join veterans, historians and students at Veritas Classical Academy to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States Navy.

The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 13, in the gym on the Veritas campus at 115 Victory Place, Marietta. Handicap parking and entry is available next to the parking lot. Refreshments will be served, and a food truck will be available for those who would like lunch.

The program is sponsored by the Marietta Chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution and Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Parkersburg High School Navy Junior ROTC and Marietta Chapter SAR Color Guard units will open the celebration, followed by a Navy musical presentation by the Veritas students.

According to a release from the Marietta Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution on Oct. 13, 1775, to purchase and outfit two vessels as warships for service in the Revolution. A Marine Committee consisting of John Adams, Silas Deane and John Langdon was formed to oversee naval affairs.

On June 12, 1775, just two months after the Revolutionary War erupted at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Rhode Island Assembly created the Rhode Island Navy, the first American Navy of the Revolution. Three days later, on June 15, future Marietta resident and Rhode Island Commodore Abraham Whipple fired on the British sloop HMS Diana and took it as a prize. This became the first naval engagement of the Revolutionary War.

More information is available by contacting SAR Secretary Jean Yost at jean.yost@gmail.com or 740-336-8060 or visiting mariettasar.com.