BY OLYMPIA MEOLA

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark will visit the Roanoke area tonight to launch “Military and Defense Leaders for Obama” during a town hall meeting with veterans and military families at the Vinton War Memorial.

The new military and defense leaders effort consists of a group of “high ranking retired and former military and defense officials who will lend their voices in support of President Obama,” according to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

Retired Major General James Kelley and retired Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett will join Clark, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander who in 2004 sought the Democratic presidential nomination.