Tim Blessing, a member of the Eastern York High School Class of 1964, had a question. "I reached out to members of our class because, out of curiosity, I wondered how many veterans we had," he recalled. "I asked them to send me their stories."

He soon found out there are 35 members of the Class of 1964 who are veterans.

"We covered all the bases," said Blessing, who enlisted in the Army right after graduation at age 17. "We had everyone from a doctor to a corpsman to a helicopter pilot to a cook."

To honor the service of these men, Blessing worked with Eastern York principal Bill Rickard to create a plaque listing their names. The plaque will be presented during an assembly on Veterans Day, Thursday, Nov. 11.

"It's important to recognize our veterans, some of whom made the ultimate sacrifice," noted Rickard, whose father and father-in-law are veterans. "I want kids to understand history and how they fit into it. I want them to understand the importance of service."

The plaque will be first of its kind installed at the high school, but Rickard hopes to add more. "We want students to see the connections between what they do in school and what happens out in the world when they leave here," he stated.

What started out as a plaque presentation has blossomed into a full Veterans Day assembly that will include the entire school, Rickard said. "We'll have the plaque presentation, plus a color guard will present the colors, and the band is working on playing music for the assembly," he stated.

Eight veterans will be coming to represent the Class of 1964, including Phil Lehman, who served with the Navy Seabees. "I'm glad we can honor the service of our classmates," he said. "It's important that we remember them."

Blessing said of the 35 veterans he contacted for stories, he received responses from 14, and he hopes to collect them and put them together in a booklet someday. He noted that he hopes the assembly will reinforce for the students how he and his classmates were once in their shoes. "For the seniors especially, I think it's important for them to imagine where we were and what we did right after we graduated from school," he said. "I want them to picture themselves where we were six months from now when we were their age."

Rickard, who became principal this year, said he hopes to make a Veterans Day assembly a tradition at the school.

"This assembly and this plaque is a way to emphasize the importance of patriotism," he said. "A lot of people are divided right now, but no matter who we are or what we believe, we are all Americans, and we should show our patriotism."