Area veterans will be guests of honor at the "Salute to All American Veterans" on Tuesday Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Wheelwright Auditorium at Coastal Carolina University. The event is free (tickets required) and open to the public.

The program features the premiere of "Back to the Battlefield," a documentary film that chronicles a South Carolina veteran's return to the D-Day battlefields of France 64 years after he landed on Omaha Beach.

The film, which was produced locally by historian Rod Gragg and video producers David Parker and Dennis Reed of Coastal Carolina University, follows D-Day veteran Mike Fitch of Conway back to Omaha Beach in France, where he landed on D-Day in 1944.

Fitch was a 22-year-old corporal attached to the 119th Regimental Combat Team, which followed the U.S. Army Rangers onto Omaha Beach early on the morning of June 6, 1944. This past summer Fitch returned to Normandy and saw the Omaha Beach battlefield again for the first time in 64 years. Through the film, viewers follow Fitch back to Omaha Beach and other battlefield sites as he relives the events he experienced in 1944.

"A Salute to All American Veterans" will also include musical performances, a color guard and public recognition of all American veterans.

The event, which is sponsored as a public service by Goldfinch Funeral Services, Coastal Carolina University and HTC, is an annual Veterans Day tribute to local American veterans of all eras. Refreshments will be available following the film.

For more information or for tickets, visit the Wheelwright Box Office Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The box office is closed on weekends. Call 843-349-2502.