Throughout Bee County, residents gathered at ceremonies honoring the veterans of past wars.

“It is our way of saying thank you for the people who have provided that freedom... that allows us to be here today,” said Superintendent Dr. Brett Belmarez during the Skidmore ISD Veterans Day ceremony Wednesday morning. “Please forgive us if our words alone aren’t enough but those words are from our hearts.”

(Click here to see more photos and videos in our special Veterans Day section on this site.)

Only an hour later, the students of Moreno Middle School were gathered together at a similar ceremony and Coastal Bend College students were already making their way to the college cafeteria for yet another ceremony.

“This morning we are not here to glorify war but to honor the warriors — the veterans — who for the last 234 years since the American Revolution in 1775 have made holidays like this possible,” said Commissioner Eloy Rodriguez, guest speaker at the college ceremony. “The sacrifices of the veterans must never be forgotten.”

The largest of the ceremonies, coordinated by the Beeville Garden Club, occurred last.

“Thomas Jefferson said, ‘The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,’” quoted County Judge David Silva during the ceremony inside the A.C. Jones High auditorium. “As a free nation... we will encounter opposition from time to time.

“It is going to be people like you, people like me from little towns, big towns and cities and metropolitan areas that will answer the call of their nation to go and serve. We do it with honor and dignity.”

State Rep. Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, another of the guest speakers, said, “When you look into the eyes of a veteran and shake their hand, you can feel in your heart there is something unique about them.

“There is a sense of pride being around someone who puts their life on the line for you. We all as a country have an immeasurable debt of gratitude to our veterans.”