Volunteers from across Denton County gathered Saturday morning at two cemeteries to honor World War I veterans.
"These are hometown heroes," Army veteran Jim Davenport, Jr. said.
The Texas Veterans Hall of Fame and students from the University of North Texas placed medallions of valor next to 176 WWI veteran headstones.
"Some of these veterans actually graduated from the University of North Texas. Some of them were drafted in the middle of their education," Davenport said. "These young men answered the call at 18, 19, 20 years of age and some of them didn’t come back."
The group researched each of the names and added their personal stories to their website.
"The stories are just unreal that we get from the families in our research," Air Force veteran Gary Steele said. "If we don’t capture the history… we tend to lose it."
"I think with this marker it will give a person a moment to pause and say there is another story here and they may look down and say, 'I didn’t realize he served in World War 1,'" Davenport said.
World War II veterans in Denton will soon get the same special markers and other war veterans will follow in the years to come.
