War vets young and old laid wreaths before 1,300 students at Port Moody secondary school yesterday as part of the school's annual Remembrance Day tribute.
Among those in the colour parade were Orme Payne, a Second World War sergeant, and former corporal Trevor Street, who returned home from Kandahar in May 2010 after two tours of duty in Afghanistan.
Payne, who served in an artillery unit responsible for communications within his battery in Italy, said he gets choked up every time he hears a trumpeter play "The Last Post."
"You remember the guys you left behind," he said, "and there were a lot of them."
Street, 26, now a realtor in Port Coquitlam, said the services "make you think about the sacrifices that were made and the people that were lost. You think about the families that will get the knock on the door, telling them their sons or daughters won't be coming home."
The Port Moody secondary event was co-organized by social studies and geography teacher Jodi Yorston, whose brother is also an Afghanistan veteran and served with Street.
Being able to take time out around Nov. 11 to show PMSS students how lucky they are to have the freedom they have today "is something that I take very seriously," she said, "especially having a brother who served. I am so honoured."
Yorston wasn't the only one to have had a relative in the war. During the assembly, a slide show with pictures and names of staff and students' fathers, grandfathers, great-aunts and -uncles who were in the military campaign was also presented.
The sombre hour-long ceremony was also filled with song, music and dance. Uniformed officers from Port Moody fire and police departments as well as air cadets from 754 Phoenix squadron were part of the colour party.
