HAYDEN - It might have felt like 12 degrees outside with a frigid wind freezing people's faces, but World War II veteran Herbert "Bud" Kirchhoff walked around unaffected in a sweater and wool cap.

The weather was no match for the Coeur d'Alene resident, who, after all, has survived both the infamous Bataan Death March and being a prisoner of war of the Japanese, who forced him to work in a condemned coal mine for years.

The U.S. Army staff sergeant fought the Japanese in the Philippines as part of a tank crew.

"I just want to thank all of you for coming," Kirchhoff told the bundled-up audience gathered at Hayden City Hall. They watched as he was given the 2014 Distinguished Veteran of the Year award.

"If it was me, I probably wouldn't be here," he joked.

The award ceremony was part of Hayden's Veterans Day events, which also included a parade down Government Way.

Kirchhoff was nominated for the honor by Theresa Hart, who founded the nonprofit Newby-ginnings of North Idaho. Hart's son, Nicholas Newby, was killed in action in Iraq. The nonprofit helps military families.

Hart said Kirchhoff is "living, breathing, walking, talking history."

She said he remains completely independent, living on his own now well into his 90s.

"He is just sharp as a tack," she said. With plenty of wit, too.

"You know he quit smoking in 1952?" Hart said. "Who does that? Wasn't that the peak of smoking?"

Dave Sheldon, vice chair of the Hayden Veterans Commission, introduced the distinguished veteran and featured speaker.

"When the Japanese invaded the Philippines in December of 1941 - same time they invaded Hawaii and our country - Bud was involved in a number of battles and later would command his own tank," Sheldon told the audience. "Despite being in the middle of several battles, Bud was never wounded."

In the Bataan Death March, approximately 75,000 Filipino and American POWs were forced by the Japanese army to march more than 60 miles with little to no food or water, while being beaten.

"Thousands died on the way," Sheldon said.

"If you fell out, they didn't appreciate that, so they'd do things to you that were not very nice," said Kirchhoff. "If you didn't walk, you didn't get fed."

He said the march lasted nine days.

"The heat and humidity probably was as bad as the rest," he said.

When the march ended, a lot of men just sat down and died, he recalled.

"We were burying between 50 and 100 men every day," Kirchhoff said, adding he had contracted diphtheria, malaria, and other diseases.

He was a prisoner in the Philippines for about a year and a half, then was taken to Japan.

"I spent three years in Japan in coal mines," Kirchhoff said.

Anthony Nichols, of Post Falls, said he braved the cold and watched Tuesday's parade because his father is a veteran and his daughter is in the Civil Air Patrol and was participating in the parade.

"They're holding the banners for fallen soldiers," he said.

Becky Boifeuillet, of Hayden, brought her three kids to the parade.

"I bring my kids here because it is so important to remember that although we're here (and) cold, people gave so much more," she said.

Snow, cold, whatever - World War II Army veteran Glenn Frederiksen and his wife, Harriet, who served as part of the Cadet Nurse Corps, have come to the parade the past dozen years.

"It's pretty nice that they're honoring the veterans," said Glenn Frederiksen, 88, of Hayden. "Because if it wasn't for the veterans we wouldn't be here. They wouldn't have a parade."

The bitterly cold weather was no match for the two Minnesota natives.

"Minnesota is pretty bad, but this isn't good," said Harriet Frederiksen, 87.