Monroe College in New Rochelle is inviting returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as well as older vets  interested in going back to school to its “College for a Day” event on Saturday.

From 1 to 4 p.m. prospective students can get a taste of college life by sitting in on classes from various degree programs taught by Monroe professors.

The college will have staff members on hand who are well-versed in VA educational benefits to help you if you are interested in enrolling. There will also be plenty of information on other financial aid possibilities.

The event is free. If your interested, or want more information, call Judith Redlener at 914-740-6876.

A lot of people are talking about the mysterious boom that was apparently heard in southern Westchester late Saturday night and reported here on lohud.com.

I didn’t hear it in White Plains, but hearing about it made me feel kind of homesick for my days as an Air Force brat. Growing up on isolated bases in the 1960s and early 1970s, we got to see F-4 Phantoms and F-104 Starfighters streaking across the sky virtually every day, and sonic booms were just part of the show.

At Hahn Air Base in Germany, they’d start warming them up at 4 a.m. You learned to sleep through the racket. Sometimes in the summer we kids would camp out in the woods at the edge of the flight line and watch them take off and land all night. It was cool to see the afterburn coming from their tails; it wasn’t so cool when the Air Police would catch us and turn us over to our parents.

My dad used to take us to the hangars once in a while while he was working, and GIs would let us sit in the cockpits if there were no officers around. At Hahn the hangars were covered with growing grass so they couldn’t be spotted by Soviet spy planes.

We moved to White Plains when my dad retired in 1974, and for a long time we had trouble sleeping because we didn’t hear sonic booms or the roar of jet engines. Amazing what you get used to living with.

My colleague, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, is chasing after the boom story today – apparently someone in Nanuet heard one early this morning. If you heard anything, give him a call at 914-694-5016. If not, read all about it tomorrow on lohud.com or in The Journal News.

Be sure to read Theresa Juva’s story on lohud.com about Rye High School’s tribute to WWII veteran Jack Vier, who fought in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge.

For the past five years Vier, who was wounded three times during the war, visited the high school to share his experiences with 11th grade social studies classes. I hope they know how lucky they were.

I interviewed Vier a few years ago for a story on the anniversary of the D-Day invasion. As Rye American Legion acting commander John LaGattuta said at the high school, “When Jack told stories, World War II wasn’t history; it was real life.”

Vier died in August at age 90 and the school took time out yesterday to dedicate a plaque as a reminder of the time he spent with students. Good for them.

You should be able to find the story on lohud.com or see it print tomorrow in The Journal News.