By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Four young Marines in dress uniforms serving as the honor guard stood at attention Monday morning for a Veterans Day service at the All Wars Monument in downtown Princeton.
Yet it was the older men, men with white hair and holding small American flags, who received the applause and recognition from a community grateful for their service to their country.
They were men like 88-year-old Charles Kmosko, an Army veteran who sat on a folding chair taping his foot as singers performed “God Bless America.”
Mr. Kmosko said afterward that on Veterans Day he always thinks about his “best pal,” Bruce Newman, who was killed during World War II. He said he named his son, Bruce, who brought him to Monday’s service, after his late friend.
”We often take for granted the very things we should most be thankful for. But let us never take for granted our veterans,” Princeton Mayor-elect Liz Lempert told a crowd that included veterans and local school children. “Today, we are reminded that freedom is not always free.”
The Spirit of Princeton, an all-volunteer organization, ran Monday’s service.
Master of Ceremonies Lee Wofford recalled Veterans Day has its roots in the culmination of World War I, when the armistice ending fighting was signed on Nov. 11, 1918. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson declared Nov.11, 1919, the first commemoration of Armistice Day, later renamed Veterans Day in the 1950s to honor veterans of all wars.
”So we come together to honor and recognize all 24 million of our American service members, past and present, and salute you for your service to our country, both in uniform and out,” Mr. Wofford said. “For the time you spent in uniform, the interests of the nation always came first. And many of you sacrificed greatly, with physical scars of service and sometimes scars that are not physical.”
One borough official shared a personal story during her remarks.
”It is vital that we take time from our too-busy schedules to remember those men and women who have served and, in some cases, sacrificed their lives for their country,” said Borough Council President Barbara Trelstad, filling in for Mayor Yina Moore.
She recalled how her father, George Henken, impressed upon her the importance of service to country. For medical reasons, he was not able to serve in World War II, something that distressed him. Yet she remembered how he would shuttle sailors who needed a ride back to their air station from having visiting the girls at a local college in Oakland, Calif., where the family lived.
”And it was his way of doing a tiny bit to help those who were doing their duty,” she said. “This act of kindness by my Dad has stuck with me all of my life.”

