The Sparks American Legion Post 30 on Fourth Street was quiet Monday morning except for three friends, all veterans. Lou Romani and Tim Johnson, both of Sparks, served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Rick Kellenberger of Gardnerville served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, driving trucks in France.

The group of American Legion Riders met at the post that morning before getting on their motorcycles and riding to Fernley for the 19th annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Upon arrival, they joined about 700 other veterans, along with Gov. Jim Gibbons, Sen. Harry Reid, Sparks Mayor Geno Martini, the mayors of Carson City, Fernley and other local dignitaries.

The standing-room only crowd shed tears and gave applause through an hour and a half of speeches and memorial services.

The veterans who came to remember their friends spanned the generations.

Ray Dutter, a World War II Navy Sea Bees veteran, was one of the first to set foot in Japan after the battle of Guadalcanal.

“The best way to honor veterans today is to walk up and shake their hands,” Dutter said. “I hope these people get what this day is all about.”

The Guadalcanal campaign marked the first significant strategic combined arms victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific area, putting the Japanese on the defensive for the first time.

Dutter entered Japan in 1943 with the tools of a contractor as part of the construction crew that came in after the initial battle to build out infrastructure.

According to the U.S. Veterans Administration, about 900 of the World War II generation die every day. According to a release from the department, 19,848 World War II veterans lived in Nevada in 2008.

The last known surviving World War I veteran, 108-year-old Frank Woodruff Buckles, lives in West Virginia.

On Monday Dutter entered a group of his fellow service men and women under different circumstances. He was one of the men to carry to the stage a memorial wreath with the phrase “Lest we forget” printed in the center.

A generation after Dutter stepped onto Japanese soil, Johnson set sail as a Navy seaman during the Vietnam War.

Johnson’s most memorable war experience came not in the storm of a sea battle, but in a shipmate’s hasty handling of a shipment of flares aboard the USS Oriskany, which caused a large shipboard fire.

According to Johnson, the seaman was moving around flares when one accidentally went off, sending much of the ship up in flames.

“I remember the bombs were split open,” Johnson said. “It was a miracle they didn’t go off.”

However, 44 men died in the fire.

Those of Dutter and Johnson’s friends who did not make it home alive after foreign service were honored in speeches and song Monday.

“They gave their lives for that flag,” Gibbons said, glancing back behind the podium at the American Flag flying at half-staff. “They gave their lives for the very right to gather here today … for the right of everyone to be who they want to be.”

Reid also expressed his appreciation for service members who died in combat.

“Today we have come to honor the brave men and women who passed away too soon in the pursuit of peace and for their countrymen’s safety,” Reid told the crowd. “We remember those who have fought and fallen. We revere those who continue to sacrifice. We recommit ourselves to fulfilling our obligation to those who volunteer.”

At one point in the ceremony, the members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars groups were asked to stand and “silently salute their friends and comrades” who had died.

The request brought a tear to Kellenberger’s face.

“All of them are on my mind now,” Kellenberger said with emotion in his voice. “God bless ‘em.”

More than 2,000 veterans are buried at the Fernley Cemetery.