DURANT — Area veterans were recognized and those who laid down their lives were remembered during ceremonies held on Veterans Day Tuesday.

The day’s events began with the annual Veterans Day Parade through downtown Durant.

Weldon F. Brown, First Sgt. (retired) United States Army, served as the parade marshal. Brown is a Gulf War veteran and commander of VFW Post No. 3916.

State Sen. Jay Paul Gumm introduced Brown at the ceremony on the courthouse lawn.

“Thank you all, veterans, for your sacrifice so we may live in a free country,” Gumm said.

Brown thanked veterans for attending, and he quoted President John F. Kennedy who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

State Rep. John Carey spoke about the memorial on the courthouse lawn that memorializes local veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice.

He said children riding with their parents have asked about the monument when they pull up to the stop sign.

Durant City Manager Jim Dunegan said we have a lot to be thankful for because of what the veterans have done and that local families are grieving because of lives lost.

“I want to thank you for your commitment you’ve made for our country so we can live in the land of freedom,” Dunegan said.

Dunegan, who said he is old enough to remember World War II, recalled what he felt then as a child.

“As a young child, I had fear for our country, but our veterans came through and we have freedom today,” he said.

District No. 1 Commissioner Monty Montgomery also praised those who have worn the uniform for this country.

“I want to thank the veterans for what they have done for this country, state and county,” he said.

Tuesday afternoon, an assembly was held at the Durant High School Auditorium to recognize those who have served and remember those who gave their lives.

Students held up poster boards with numbers showing how many have been killed in Iraq. On Aug. 12, the day school started, 4,138 had died and as of Tuesday morning, that number had risen to 4,193.

One of those who gave his life was Brady Rudolf, a 1989 DHS graduate. Rudolf died in September when his helicopter crashed in Iraq.

His older brother Dustin Rudolf spoke at the ceremony and recalled how as a child, Brady saw helicopters lined up at Fort Rucker and told family members that he wanted to fly a helicopter.

“Brady had a dream of becoming a helicopter pilot,” Rudolf said. “His dream of flying a helicopter started as a kid.”

That dream became a reality in the Oklahoma Army National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq the first time in 2003. He was activated again in June of this year and although he had served 20 years in the guard and could have retired, he opted to stay in because he did not want to let the others in his unit down.

Dustin Rudolf said he read on the Internet that a helicopter had crashed. He then sent an e-mail to Brady. The e-mail was never answered.

“When we received the news it was him, it really changed our lives,” Dustin said. “Veterans Day always meant a lot to me, but now that I have a lost one, it makes it have a lot more meaning.”

Several other veterans were recognized, including Byron Cordell, Gulf War veteran, Nathan Beaty, a veteran of the Iraq war, and retired Judge Joe Taylor, who served in the national guard.

Tanner Dupree, another soldier recently deployed to Iraq, presented Assistant Principal Dale Perrin with a flag that flew over a U.S. base in Iraq.

The ceremony concluded with a speech by Julius Culbreath, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Culbreath who deployed to France after D-Day, recalled coming under enemy fire in a field.

“I got a good education,” he said. “I was shot at and crawled under machine-gun fire.”

He was later taken prisoner by the Germans and served 10 months at a prisoner of war camp. Culbreath recalled being jammed into a box car with other prisoners. The train used to transport the prisoners to the camp was strafed by allied fighter planes because it was not marked.

Culbreath said he weighed 160 pounds and lost 45 pounds while a prisoner.

“You don’t know what it’s like to get really hungry,” he said.