Honoring Sunday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church celebrates local veterans.
A handful of them stopped by for cake and recognition, including a local World War II vet.
As you can imagine, Anthony Pagano shared some harrowing stories from the war.
"One boy, in fact, died in my jeep," Pagano said. "He asked me, I just remember this this morning, he asked, 'Am I going to die?' I said no. His last word was 'mama.'"
Anthony said he wasn't the first Pagano in the Army during the 1940s.
"My brother Joe, you've heard of G.I. Joe?" he said. "He was in before Pearl Harbor. He was in [for] five years."
Pagano said he was a jeep driver and a combat engineer.
"[The] morbidity in my battalion was 12 dead and 50 wounded," he said.
Pagano said he flew from Dallas to Paris for the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy. Then-President Joe Biden and French President Emmanual Macron were set to deliver speeches to 60 WWII veterans at Omaha Beach.
"The French president was late to his speech," Pagano said. "But then finally, 30 of us went to see Biden. We're told not to talk to him, ask him any questions. 30 of us remained in VIP."
Pagano said at the spot where the group ate lunch, there was a couple WWII-era Jeeps similar to what he drove -- but with one key difference.
"I couldn't get into the Jeep," he said. "They listened to us ... and raised the chassis up to 10 inches."
Pagano said the 1942 Jeep he drove had a ground clearance of six inches.
Gary Paul is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the Army from 1967 to 1970. He said he enjoyed his time in Panama before he was sent to Vietnam.
"Wonderful place to be for 18 months," Paul said. "[I spent] a lot of time on the beaches and learned about the canal."
Paul said he was a non-combatant during his time in the war. The only time he was ever in danger was due to friendly fire.
"I was about three or four barracks away," he said, "and the rockets came in and killed 13 veterans."
Paul said there was one stretch that was particularly demanding.
"I worked 40 days straight without any breaks or anything," he said. "12 hours a day. But I got through it."
An Air Force Veteran says she met her husband while they were both stationed in the Philippines.
"Michael was a medic in the hospital," said Josephine Cassady, "so he was one of the nurses over there. That's how we met and ended up marrying each other."
Her husband, Michael Cassady, says he joined the force partly because his dad told him to.
"I grew up as an army brat," he said. "I'm originally from Oklahoma, and my father, who was retired from the Army, gave me some sound advice and said, 'Son, if you're going to go into the military, join the Air Force.' So that's what I did."
He said their weather program was another deciding factor. He also got an opportunity to work with a TV station while he was in Japan.
"They said, 'Hey, we want to put a weatherman on our evening newscast,'" Michael Cassady said. "So for about a year and a half before we left Okinawa, I was the television meteorologist every evening on the 6:00 news."
Another attendee says he's not a veteran, but a lot of his family members are.
"We were one of the few families in the United States that had a five-star Blue Star Mom flag at their house," said Richard Duran.
Each star on a Blue Star Mothers service flag represents one son or daughter in the military.
"My father, he's a Pearl Harbor survivor," Duran added.
Duran says his father went to seven campaigns in the Pacific, including Okinawa.
"He was in the first battle and the last battle," Duran said.
