Friday, July 27th

We have traveled about 250-miles since yesterday and are sitting on the northside of Fort Collins in LaPorte at American Legion Post 4. This is our final broadcast stop for the Tour of Colorado and it's here that we meet the most engaging veteran of the entire tour, Curt Cameron.

Curt is an 83-year old veteran of WWII. He tells you proudly how he enlisted at the age of 17, the day after he graduated from high school. Curt went on to become a glider pilot, participating in several of the biggest campaigns of the war in Europe including D-Day at Normandy, Operation Market Garden in Holland and the Battle of the Bulge. Seven major campaigns in 33-months of service. And then he came home, but he didn't quit serving.

Today Curt heads up the All Fort Collins Honor Guard. A couple times a month they present the colors, a 21-gun salute and Taps at the funerals of veterans. He's been doing it for over 20-years. I asked Curt why those 33-months of his life in service, 62-years ago, were still so important to him. He smiles, tells you it was the most important thing he's ever done, and doesn't go any further. They never do.

We ask veterans to share their stories all the time and slowly, but surely, they have started to. But the never tell you everything. They'll tell you about battles, and buddies, and coming home. But you won't hear about events that changed who these men and women were, forever. You had to be there, and change with them, to appreciate just what it was like. So, ask Curt about being a glider pilot, and honoring veterans and he'll talk all day. Ask about how he changed during the war, and you'll know from the twinkle, and the tears, that there's another story you had to be there to understand.