NORTH PORT — Army veteran Josh Ritz believes veterans deserve a paid holiday for their service, so he began a petition with the aim of making Veterans Day a paid holiday for all who have served in the armed forces.

Ritz, 35, of North Port, served in the U.S. Army for four years, in Kansas and Korea. He was honorably discharged in 2002, about two years after he injured his knee during a parachute jump in airborne school. Ritz has set up an online petition at www.change.org, a website that has raised public awareness on a number of controversial issues. Ritz hopes to amass at least 5,000 electronic signatures there to put the same kind of national spotlight on his cause.