"What keep this nation great is when we remember our history."
Remembering a history of service, a history of sacrifice from area veterans.
"Over the years a lot of good friends have come had their final resting place here so now it's a special place for me just to come. It's a beautiful site. The second largest military cemetery in the country and I think the prettiest," says Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond, a Vietnam veteran.
"You get a lot of camaraderie, you get a lot of brotherhood and this kind of brings that back. You see a lot of people you haven't seen for awhile and it just brings back those memories, kind of washes out the bad memories," says Soddy Daisy Vietnam veteran Wayne Mailliard.
It's a ceremony that's especially touching for Vietnam Veterans, who still remember how they were treated coming home almost 30 years ago.
"Very few of us had any welcome home. A lot of Vietnam Veterans were told to take off their uniform and travel home in civilian clothes because the country wasn't very friendly to us," says veteran Noah Long."
"I know a lot of guys who weren't treated so well and left a bad taste in our mouths and things like this kind of alleviates that problem," adds Mailliard.
Now veterans say with ceremonies like today's, the country does a better job of honoring its heroes.
"The men and women who lie buried here, some 50 thousand, they represent the security we enjoy as Americans and we don't need to let a generation forget," says Hammond.
"This generation of veterans never wants another generation of veterans to be treated like we were," adds Long.
