WYOMING -- After Memorial Day parades are all said and done, some veterans in Wyoming got together at the VFW hall on Wyoming Avenue.
"The people around here have the same kind of feelings that I've had and we know each other very well," Army veteran Jim Tighe said.
It's a day to remember their friends, families, and service members who gave their all for our freedoms.
"You see, I have a deep feeling because I lost a true friend," Army Sgt. Gerald A. Stofko said.
Sgt. Stofko still remembers the day an unlikely friendship blossomed between him and Willy Ortegas, a rough and tumble Army man from the Bronx.
"People don't understand war. If people went to war there would be no more wars. There would be no more wars if people saw what was going on," Sgt. Stofko said.
Army veteran Jim Tighe thinks back on his time in Vietnam. He keeps a list of all the servicemen in his unit who died close to his heart.
He said Kenneth Roy Farden was the funny guy in the group.
"He got killed on guard duty during a mortar attack. We used to get mortared probably five times a week, five out of seven days," Tighe said.
It's days like these that remind them how thankful they are to have one another to lean on, no matter what.
"We all have stories. We all know the stories. We all know that feeling when we came home, so it's very comforting to be around friends like this," Tighe said.
However, it's not just today that they have each other, it's a lifetime.
