Al Froehler and Frank Kellins were gratified to see the large crowds gathered for Remembrance Day in Langley City Sunday morning.

“It’s incredible, the education the kids are getting,” said Froehler.

Both men are veterans, Froehler a 22-year member of the Canadian Navy and a submariner, from 1958 to 1979.

Kellins served in the RCAF in the Second World War.

“I joined in 1943,” he said. He flew in the Burma campaigns as a radio officer, aboard Liberator bombers. One of the medals on his chest marks him as a master bomber, or pathfinder.

There were a few younger veterans in the crowd this year.

“We’ve got veterans nowadays that are 20 years old instead of 80 years old,” said Froehler.

Along with a crowd of more than a dozen veterans, police, firefighters, Scouts, Guides, and Air, Sea, and Army Cadets, the two men marched from the Royal Canadian Legion on 56th Avenue down to Douglas Park.

Flags were lowered to half mast, and there was a moment of silence observed by several thousand people who ringed the cenotaph and bandshell.

Legion member Donna Watson read letters from local school children, written to veterans in thanks for their sacrifices.

She also read a list of 10 names of veterans who have passed away in the last year.

Wreaths were laid by politicians, service groups, unions, and others.