OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The 45^th Infantry Museum held their annual Memorial Day ceremony Monday morning in northeast Oklahoma City to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

“It means a lot,” said Army veteran Ben Griswold in tears when speaking about Memorial Day and what it means to him. “I have an uncle that never came home.”

“For us, it’s a day of remembrance,” said Director of the Joint Staff for the Oklahoma National Guard. Brig. Gen. Colby Wyatt. “It’s a day of thinking about those soldiers and airmen and sailors and marines that we’ve lost along the way.”

At the ceremony, our nation’s hero’s both past and present remembered those they fought alongside and the countless others who gave everything for our country.

All veterans in attendance were also honored there.

One of them was Griswold who served for 38 years in the Army before retiring as a Lt. Col. He was overcome with emotion when speaking with KFOR.

“There’s just so many of them that didn’t come home,” Griswold said holding back tears. “I lost a lot of guys in Vietnam. Good friends.”

Another, and the keynote speaker of the event, was Wyatt.

“For me, it’s an extended family and it really doesn’t matter what service they were in,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what wars they fought in. It’s just a matter of that they served and that that creates that extended family for me.”

Both men discussing a deep meaning to them for Memorial Day as they looked back on their careers and those that were with them.

Griswold only adding that this shouldn’t be the only day for remembrance.

“Never give up on this,” he said. “Keep honoring those that didn’t come home.” The ceremony included the playing of taps, a medley of the songs of the U.S. Armed Forces, plus the placing of a wreath at the base of the American flag.

Find more information on the 45^th Infantry Museum Facebook page.