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'The veterans are the story': NH Veterans Home event provides reflection on military service

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Source: WMUR

The New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton was filled with people on Wednesday to commemorate Veterans Day. There was an outpouring of support for those who served in a packed function hall at the home. "At the New Hampshire Veterans Home, honoring veterans is not just something we do one day a year. It's the heart of our mission, and it's reflected in everything we do. The veterans are the story. They are who we are, and they make this home a home," said Kimberly MacKay, Commandant of the New Hampshire Veterans Home. "This gives us an opportunity to publicly stop, pause and thank them for putting on that uniform that less than 1% of people do." For Vietnam veterans like Stephen Sayewich, who served in the United States Air Force, the holiday offers a chance for deeper reflection on military service. "I never told anybody, and I mean this. I never told anybody what I did, because that was part of the ethos," Sayewich said.

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One of New Hampshire’s last WWII veterans looks back on his service

Over the next decade or so, America is expected to bid a final farewell to the last surviving WWII veterans who once filled the ranks of Veterans Day celebrations. The long march of time has taken its toll: now only one WWII veteran lives at the state veterans home in Tilton. "All my buddies were all in. We were seven guys that used to hang around together. They're all dead except me now," said Gerry Jutras to News 9. Jutras served in the Navy, enlisting at age 17 near the end of the war in 1945. "My uncle was in the Army in Italy. He was five years older than me, sleeping on the ground. I didn't want to sleep on the ground, so I said I'll join the Navy and I'll have a bunk!" he said. According to the National WWII museum, an estimated 30,000 American WWII veterans are still living, just a fraction of the more than 16 million who served in that war. The median age of those Greatest Generation veterans is now around 98.

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