Weeks before America's 250th birthday, Wilmore remembered our nation's heroes and their sacrifice.

Last week's Salute to Service event honored the area's veterans and first responders.

We're celebrating Salute to Service.

It's basically honor veterans and first responders.

Our country's 250th birthday.

Will Moore's 150th birthday.

Thompson Hood's 35th year and nine 1125 years.

All those memorials and celebrations lined up in the same year.

So it was time that Wilmore could do something fairly significant.

And in particular, to honor the veterans.

The Vietnam War, obviously, is an 80% size replica of the wall that's in Washington, D.C.. It has 58,400 plus names of those, veterans that did not return home over that long war.

Basically, from 1955 to 1975.

And again, that's one of the the most important memorials that's in Washington, D.C.. And this traveling wall goes around the country 30, 40 times, to show in the smaller communities those people that can't go to Washington, DC to really show them what this is really about.

That was all in Vietnam.

And 1969, was, just turned 1901.

Straight from house rules.

War.

To a whole lot of.

Stuff that people here wouldn't believe, you know, returned for five years.

But when I come on, I didn't give much.

But, you know.

If we don't remember our history and appreciate the people that helped defend either the homeland or those, overseas, we have a tendency to relive the same events over and over again.

So it's very important that we retain that history and show the respect of those that have paid the ultimate price.

Those who did not come home with our mace.

And we want to honor those families as well.

So about all a non veteran can do is honor a veteran that went and stood in our place and served our country, and most wrote a blank check to go serve, not knowing the consequences.

So it's a high honor for Wilmore to be the home of veterans Center and to get to honor these 270 veterans and these 14 families that never got closer.

The event included a candlelight vigil and a tribute to service members.