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Don Bush of Clearfield, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, felt a bit intimidated by the heroics of the 10 Utah veterans he shared a stage with Friday at the University of Utah.
"It's an honor to be with those guys on the stage," said Bush, 88, who with the others was given a medallion as his war exploits were shared with several hundred in the audience.
Three cannons outside the Olpin Union Building shot off a 21-gun salute, a lone bagpiper played "Amazing Grace," and a trumpeter played taps as the 14th annual Veterans Day celebration ended.
Elsewhere in the valley, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert lauded Japanese-American veterans and presented five Utahns with awards for distinguished service: Bill Christofferson; Norman Nelson, Robert Ramos, Casey Kunimura and Keith Davis. Taylorsville held a parade, and a number of memorials were dedicated.
During World War II, Bush led a team of 10 sailors who took part in five invasions of South Pacific Islands to dislodge the Japanese fighters. Each time, his unit traveled with Marines or soldiers, donning their uniforms, as they went in to set up radios and signal operators, he said.
Men were injured all around them, but all 10 came home unscathed, Bush said. Six have died, and the other three live in West Virginia, Oregon and Ohio. "We became just like brothers," Bush, the last WWII veteran to serve in the Utah Legislature, said Friday.
Another World War II veteran honored Friday, Lynn Poulsen, pumped his right arm as a short biography was read, highlighting the fact that a buddy saved him after Germans bombed the area where he lay in a hospital bed.
A member of the Utah National Guard's 222 Field Artillery Battalion — the same battalion due back from Iraq next month — Poulsen was wounded three separate times in Europe.
Two World War II veterans who died earlier this fall, Richard Donald Coleman and RKay Mower, were honored posthumously; their children stood in for them on Friday.
John Delliskave and Winston T. Thatcher, two other World War II veterans, were among those honored, as were four Vietnam War veterans: Benjamin Bowthorpe, Russell A. Elder, Stuart Shipley and Rick Warke. Scott Konopasek was the lone Desert Storm honoree.
David Rudd, dean of the U.'s College of Social and Behavioral Science, said such Veterans Day events are an opportunity to recognize that less than 1 percent of Americans volunteer for today's military.
"After 10 years of war, it's easy to lose perspective," said Rudd, who recently spent time at a Texas medical center with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have lost limbs.
He learned, he said, that war has devastating consequences and yet veterans face them with optimism. "I learned I owe them an enormous debt of gratitude."
Rudd was one of the organizers of the U.'s National Center for Veterans' Studies, which is jointly run by his college and the College of Law.
Vets to be honored Saturday
Thirteen members of the 118th Sapper Company of the Utah National Guard will be recognized at the BYU vs. University of Idaho game Saturday at 7 p.m. The 118th returned from Afghanistan last summer, and its members were awarded 24 Purple Heart medals in September. BYU also will pay tribute to each branch of the military during halftime as part of the school's celebration of Veterans Day.