“I think it’s just important to remind kids why we have today.”

Staff Sergeant Bob Donmoyer, who retired from the Army in 2019, told the Sun-Gazette this shortly before a Veterans Day program in Montoursville, where he surprised his grandson after driving about 800 miles to attend.

Family clearly is important to Donmoyer. He noted how military service fostered family-like camaraderie of his fellow soldiers during his years of service.

“You were serving with your brother and sister,” he said.

“When you hear the word sacrifice, a lot of people think the only sacrifice is to give your life and that is the ultimate sacrifice. And, that’s a risk that you always have in the military,” Petty Officer Brandon Hogue said at the program, according to the weekend edition of the Sun-Gazette. “We have veterans that are still living here. There’s a different type of sacrifice we like to thank these veterans for.”

As we editorialized Thursday when we encouraged readers to attend a ceremony or service the past few days, this time of year provides us all an excellent chance to thank veterans for their service and to contemplate how we, as a society, can do more to serve veterans’ needs.

We appreciate that the elementary school students at Friday’s assembly took that chance. We hope they reflect on Donmoyer’s and Hogue’s words. We hope we all can reflect on Donmoyer’s and Hogue’s words, and bring a greater sense of gratitude for our veterans’ service to every day.