FOUNTAIN • As the words to “Amazing Grace” hung in the chilly air, Duane Crosser’s thoughts drifted back in time to 1945. He was a teenager on a troop train, possibly headed to the Pacific and the invasion of Japan when the dropping of the atomic bomb ended World War II.

Tuesday’s Veterans Day unveiling and dedication of the Fountain Valley Veterans Memorial in a plaza in front of the town’s City Hall had Crosser and his wife, Barbara, recalling a time when America seemed more patriotic and united.

“Everybody wanted to go,” Crosser said of enlistment during World War II. “It was a very patriotic time. The country was more together than it’s ever been.”

Sword flourishes, salutes and the solemnity of taps always affect Barbara Crosser.

“It just gets you,” she said. “I cry at parades.”

After the war, Duane Crosser made a career of the military, retiring from the Air Force in 1966. He and his wife were among about 150 people who turned out for the observance in a town a few miles from Fort Carson, where military service is like a second skin for many.

It’s where babies wear fuzzy camouflage sleepers and men sporting ponytails are veterans.

Eldon Granger doesn’t look much like a maintenance company first sergeant with his black leather chaps, head scarf, long moustache and purple Harley-Davidson motorcycle nearby.

But he served about 30 years in the National Guard, and although he never served in a war zone, he honors “the brotherhood.”

“It rips your heart out cause you know why taps is being blown,” he said.Commemorating the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the signing of the Armistice ended World War I, the crowd heard a speech by Col. Eugene Smith, Fort Carson garrison commander.

The highlight was the dedication of the war memorial by Fountain Mayor Jeri Howells.

The memorial, displayed on City Hall’s lawn, consists of a stone slab and a “wall of memories” made up of bricks engraved with service members’ names, years of service and wars in which they served. Veterans and family members can buy bricks to honor their loved ones.

Howells, who has pushed for completion of the memorial, said city officials hope to relocate the memorial to Mayor’s Park on Highway 85-87.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com

President-elect Obama, right, hugs Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, director, Illinois Department of veterans Affairs, following a wreath laying ceremony at the Bronze Soldiers Memorial in honor of Veteran’s Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008, in Chicago. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS