America today acknowledges the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Many people will visit cemeteries to remember family members and friends who gave up their lives for the nation. The Stars and Stripes will fly. Rifles will be fired in salute to these men and women in uniform. There will be processions of honor guards.

Memorial Day marks very personal, as well as community wide, remembering of veterans now gone.

Recently, a group of 95 veterans from central and western North Dakota took part in the Roughrider Honor Flight from Bismarck to Washington where veterans and volunteers visited the WWII memorial, as well as the Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean, and the two Iwo Jima memorials, the Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the graves of the Kennedy family.

From all accounts, the Roughrider Honor Flight was a moving experience for the veterans, the volunteers and all whom they met along the way. Tribune reporter Karen Herzog, who accompanied the honor flight, wrote of the many people on the Capitol Mall who approached the group of North Dakotans asking about their service and saying thank you.

The Roughrider Honor Flight seems such an appropriate way to thank veterans. Many of the men and women on the plane had not had an opportunity to visit the memorials that are personally linked to their lives. It was an opportunity for them to talk about difficult war experiences that they had been silent about for decades.

Thank you to the Roughrider Flight organizers and volunteers. You have done a remarkable thing for some of the nation's finest.

Remember, not everyone serves. Of North Dakota's civilian population, 11.9 percent are veterans. That ranks the state 31st among states. The highest percentage can be found in Alaska at 16.2 percent, Montana is second at 15.1 percent. And there are fewer each year still among the living who served during WWII.

To be a veteran sets a man or woman apart. They are not more a citizen than others, or less. But they did answer the nation's call to arms, and for that we offer our thanks to those still alive, and our profound appreciation for those now dead.

There's a waiting list of about 200 veterans wanting to make an honor flight to the nation's capital in the fall. To contribute to this effort, donations, which are tax deductible, can be sent to Roughrider Honor Flight, P.O. Box 220, Bismarck, N.D. 58502.

Meanwhile, public Memorial Day ceremonies and private visits to the graves of veterans will be conducted at every cemetery in the area. It's a day steeped in tradition, caring and honor. Please, take part. Express your appreciation to the nation's war dead.