Tears sprang to the eyes of World War II veteran Curtis Watts as he remembered lost loved ones from his time in the Air Force.

“I’ll be 90 in January and so many of my friends are gone,” Watts said. “I enjoyed the service so much. I wouldn’t give up my time there for anything.”

Watts was one of more than 600 veterans and their families honored at the annual Veterans Day memorial Thursday at Countryside YMCA. The 100th U.S. Army Band played the Star Spangled Banner and each military branch’s song, while the Warren County Sheriff’s Honor Guard presented a 21-gun salute during the hour-long ceremony, which also included a lunch for the guests.

“The veterans before us volunteered their time not just to bring in brownies, but donated a significant piece of their life and in many cases gave their life for us,” said Countryside YMCA President and CEO Mike Carroll. “That’s why we’re here.”

“The great gift of freedom has been preserved by men and women like these for over 230 years,” said Lt. Col. Brad Wenstrup, an Army surgeon who served in Iraq in 2005-2006 and was elected to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. “Like anything of value, freedom is something that has to be protected. American veterans have and are paying that insurance premium for us.”

Wenstrup noted that veterans came in all races and creeds and served with “one common mission and one sense of purpose. We are all Americans.”

“Troops have time and again stood for freedom until freedom can stand on its own two feet, around the world,” Wenstrup said. “Veterans have not wasted their time on earth. They have chosen to put you and me ahead of themselves.”

Watts served as a mechanic in the Air Force from 1943-47.

“We trained and escorted a lot of crews overseas,” Watts said. “They were the absolute best.”

“Being here reminds me that freedom isn’t free,” said F. James Norris, Sr., a Lebanon Marine who served in a tank platoon in the Korean War. “I’ve been to ceremonies in Hawaii and France and seen the graves of 18- and 19-year-old boys who died for our country.”