Christie signs bills to honor military personnel and veterans

Gov. Christie returned to Haddon Heights on Monday to sign a package of legislation intended to honor active-duty and veteran military personnel.

Christie signed three bills in an afternoon ceremony at the Honor Roll Memorial at Haddon Lake Park in the borough where he opened his campaign to become governor.

A fourth measure, which he previously signed, renames a portion of Route 47 in Glassboro the South Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Highway.

"Our state's servicemen, servicewomen, and their families have bravely and selflessly sacrificed in defense of our nation and our values," Christie said Monday in a written statement. "It is only fitting that we take every opportunity to recognize and repay, in every [way] we are able, all that they have given to us."

One of the bills expands to veterans of Korea and Vietnam a program that currently awards secondary school diplomas to eligible World War I and World War II service personnel who left high school before graduation in order to enlist in the military.

Another bill changes membership requirements of the Veteran's Services Council, and the third creates a New Jersey Honor Guard Ribbon for active members of the New Jersey National Guard, Honor Guard retiree members, and contracted civilian buglers who have served to honor deceased veterans at Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Cemetery.