Veterans Honored at Apple Valley High School Ceremony

For Jim Downey, Veterans Day is about remembering his military service, but also remembering and honoring those he knew who weren't lucky enough to return home. 

Downey, a U.S. Navy veteran who served in World War II on the USS LST-620, said 80 percent of the crew on the ship were under 20 years old. Downey enlisted in September 1943, he said—four days before he turned 18.

"Many of them never made it to their 20th birthdays," Downey—who also was recalled during the Korean War—remembered on Friday as he sat in the cafeteria at .

Joseph Yurchisin was in the 7th Air Force during World War II, a navigator on a B-24 bomber in the Pacific from May 1943 to January 1946.

"You do reminisce," he said about each Veterans Day, reflecting on how he's made it this far and on the friends he has lost.

Downey, Yurchisin and other veterans in the Apple Valley area turned out at Apple Valley High School on Friday for a Veterans Day breakfast and ceremony, which included student and veteran speakers, and choir and band performances.

In its second year, the event attracted double the number of veterans that attended last year, Principal Steve Degenaar said.

Vietnam War and U.S. Navy veteran Gene Wenthold, who is also a past commander of the , said he appreciates the high school hosting the event and including its entire student body.

"They need to see that veterans are their neighbors," Wenthold, a former teacher, said.

Some high school students visited with the veterans before the ceremony, hearing stories about their service and discussing their lives since.

Downey, also a Legion member, recalls crossing the English Channel toward the beach at Normandy—not as part of the initial invasion, but carrying a field hospital on their first trip in.

Wenthold has volunteered at Fort Snelling for the past six years, which keeps the military on his mind often.

"We do about 10 funerals every day," he said, which have included some of his friends.

Wenthold said veterans of all ages and service backgrounds, from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan have been able to come together in their communities.

Camaraderie develops between many veterans, even if they're from different generations—Downey and Wenthold, for example.

"Jim enlisted two months before I was born," Wenthold said.

Check back later for video from the ceremony.