(smooth music) - Since 1868, Memorial Day has been a time to honor fallen soldiers from every branch of the US military.

At the VFW, or Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post in Royal Oak, we sat down with three veterans to talk about how each of them commemorates the holiday.

So Houston, tell me again, how did you begin serving?

- How did you begin serving in the Army?

- I began to serve in the Army, in 1943, when they drafted me.

- [Bryce] This is Houston Pritchett, a 103-year-old World War II veteran and his daughter Deborah.

Pritchett is hard of hearing, so his daughter helped relay my questions.

To his right are Mike Sand and Phillip Smith, both are Vietnam veterans.

And Mike, how did you begin serving?

- I was drafted and rather than be drafted, I enlisted in the Air Force for four years as opposed to two.

- All right.

And how about you, Phil?

- The draft was going on.

My neighbor, a friend of mine, came to my door, knocked on it and said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "We're going to work."

He said, "No, you're not.

Let's go down to the Marine Corps and join."

And I did.

- So tell me, when you first joined, how did friends and relatives respond to that?

- Friends and relatives didn't respond too good, when I first went in the Army.

They were kind of upset.

- Why is that?

- I never did get around to figuring that out 'cause I was scared about going.

- And when you joined, what did people think in your life?

- Well, of course the '60s was a difficult time.

You had the, the Peaceniks and the Patriots.

And my father was World War II, my uncles were Korea, and I felt it was my obligation to serve and I figured if I was gonna serve, I'd gain something out of it, so the Air Force was kind enough to accept me and a lot of my friends.

I was kind of drafted when the war was really picking up, 1967.

And I had been dating my high school sweetheart for two and a half years.

And rather than be drafted, I joined.

So I said, "I won't be back for four years.

You think we should get married?"

And before I said married, she said, "Yes."

So we married right outta high school and spent four years together in the military.

- Nice.

And how about you, Phil?

How did people in your life respond?

- Well, it's kind of funny because a recruiter thought I wasn't old enough, wasn't 18.

And I was, and he told me I had to get a signature from my parents to go in.

I said, "I'm already 18," "Doesn't matter.

You don't look old enough."

So I got my stepfather to sign the paperwork.

My dad was already in the Army, he was still in the Army.

He was a POW, prior World War II.

And he was proud.

He didn't think I would ever make it in the Marine Corps 'cause of how they are.

But I got through the basic and went on.

So, but everybody was proud.

- Tell me about a friend you served with, who unfortunately didn't get to make it back home.

- I was involved in the air war, spent time in Thailand and we did the bombings of North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Operation Rolling Thunder.

We lost many pilots, many pilots.

We had two reconnaissance aircraft crash.

One had 19 guys on board, the other one had 21 guys on board.

So there's a lot of folks on the Wall that I didn't have personal contact with, but they're with me today.

So I can just say that I'm sad.

I'm sad about it.

- [Bryce] Veterans are sometimes filled with survivor's guilt, feeling bad that they came home while others did not.

Smith says instead of feeling guilty, he just remembers those who didn't come home.

- And I, well, you continue on.

And I dealt with a lot of veterans.

The job I had, I was a veteran service rep. And you deal with those all the time.

And you still remember some of 'em, a lot of them, especially members in your organizations that have passed on.

- All right.

And how about you, Mike?

Did you ever deal with survivor's guilt?

- Well, I'm glad to be here and I feel for those who haven't.

I've been to the Wall twice in Washington DC.

We named my VFW post after World War I guy and a World War II hero.

And I guess you could say we feel guilty because we're here and they're not.

But we did what we had to do and that's why we served the manner that we do.

- Did you ever experience that?

And how did you process that?

- Did you experience survivor's guilt?

And if you did, how did you handle it?

- No, nothing to be feel guilty about, I didn't figure.

I was doing the best I could to get a job done and come home to my family.

I didn't feel guilty about it at all.

- How do you honor your fallen comrades and other veterans in your everyday life?

- Just to get down to it.

I just let the everyday life go on.

Nothing I could do about it.

I've done the best I could and I'm glad it's over and hope nothing like that don't happen again.

- And I just have one more question, how do you personally celebrate Memorial Day and why is it important?

- Memorial Day is a day of remembrance of those who have went before us, the ones who have fallen.

I celebrate, I guess I go to Memorial Day Parade in Dearborn.

I'm part of that, probably the last, I don't know, 10, 12 years or more.

- I encourage people to go out and celebrate Memorial Day, not just shopping at the store, not just having picnics, not just get together, but appreciate what we call the Guardians.

And I don't care if the Guardians are your police and fire, your National Guard, Homeland Security, our military people.

They put their lives on the line and we're gonna be participating in the St. Clair Shores 70th Parade.

They honor veterans like you wouldn't believe.

There's 14 conflicts that Detroiters have served in over the years and were not appreciated.

We have the Montford Point Marines, we have the Tuskegee Airmen, we have the Triple Nickel Airborne fellas, we have 1500 Junior ROTC cadets march in our Veteran Day parade.

Why aren't they being recognized?

And I'm asking the city of Detroit to help us provide a Veterans Memorial in the city in a prominent place, so we can recognize all these people and encourage our young Junior ROTC cadets and our young Marines and our Air Force cadets.

Because the service, I will tell you, the service probably saved my life and I've gained so much from that and I'm giving it back.