Chief Petty Officer (Ret.) Matthew L. Simmons will be the keynote speaker for the upcoming Veterans Day ceremony in Lovettsville. Simmons is a Lovettsville resident and a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. He was born at Fairfax Hospital and grew up in Sterling. He moved to Lovettsville in 1984 and graduated from Loudoun Valley High School. He began volunteering at Lovettsville Fire & Rescue and was named Fireman of the Year.
During his Coast Guard career, Simmons served on the cutters Gallatin and Midgett. He led operations in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Bering Sea, and Eastern Pacific. He also worked in Maryland, coordinating search and rescue and port security. Later, he trained new recruits in Yorktown, Virginia. After retiring, Simmons returned to…..