COEUR d'ALENE — Paula Airhart remembers tagging along with her big brother, Howard “Butch” Jones, Jr.

She was his baby sister, the youngest of five children. She looked up to Butch and cherished spending time with him, as any adoring little sister would. He took her on adventures and taught her a lot about life while they were growing up in Post Falls.

“I was really close to my brother; we all were," said Airhart, of Coeur d'Alene. “I used to do a lot with him. He’d go hunting marmots and I’d go with him. I went on the paper route with him. We were really close.”

She will never forget those special times with her big brother. She'll also never forget the day she knew she would never see him again. Lance Cpl. Howard L. Jones, Jr., of the U.S. Marine Corps, was killed in Vietnam on Feb. 24, 1968, when he was just days away from his 20th birthday.

“The last time I saw my brother is when he was getting on the plane,” Airhart said, her eyes glistening. “He was the only son my mom had.”

Even though Airhart was only 15 when her brother died, it is a wound that still stings and aches with a devastating loss. Airhart said when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial replica, the Wall that Heals, passed through town in 2013, she made sure to be there.

“I was standing on the street corner when they came down (U.S.) 95," she said. "I held a picture of my brother with two flags.”

Airhart and 24 of her family members again honored Butch during the 2015 Commemoration of the Vietnam War in the Community Room of the Coeur d'Alene Library on Saturday. Airhart's son, Dennis Jones, was one of the many relatives who attended. Dennis' middle name is Howard, for the uncle he never had the chance to know. He said the commemoration ceremony was incredibly emotional.

“Being here and just hearing all this is uplifting," said Jones, of Coeur d'Alene. "Praise the Lord for all these men and everything they did for our country. There isn’t a man here in uniform that I haven’t touched hands with.”

The Airharts and the Joneses were not alone in remembering their loved ones. More than 200 people attended the ceremony, which honored seven North Idaho servicemen who died in Vietnam as well as five who survived the war, but have since passed away. Many of those who made it out of Vietnam alive bore the emotional and physical scars of war, falling victim to illnesses associated with the herbicidal warfare chemical known as Agent Orange. All of their families were impacted by their service. The commemoration, organized by the Lt. George Farragut Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, was an opportunity to recognize those families who still grieve, 50 years later.

“We're honoring these men (and women), but we’re honoring the families, the people who live on with the deep wounds and the scars and the grieving,” said Barb Nelson, DAR member and event chair. “All these guys who died, they were people.”

The ceremony included a short film that chronicled the last 100 years of America's wartime history with an emphasis on Vietnam; speakers who discussed the Vietnam Wall 2013 and the Cabinet of Memories, the role women played during the Vietnam era and an explanation of the “Missing Man Table” as well as the sacrifice made by the fallen soldiers and the mark they left on the world; and the recognition of families, where DAR members read about the fallen servicemen while their photos were projected onto a screen in the front of the room. Family members of the fallen were given custom red, white and blue quilts as small tokens of appreciation for the high price their loved ones paid.

Many of the DAR ladies spoke in trembling voices as they told stories of empty chairs at dinner tables, children left to grow up without dads, high school crushes, pranks played on close friends, athletes who lettered in their favorite sports and battlefield journeys with no return.

“Anybody that knows a veteran, thank them,” said Arnie Howe, Vietnam veteran and chairman of the Kootenai County Veterans Council. “You would be surprised what it does. Vietnam veterans, they came back and weren’t thanked. They were spit on, they had stuff thrown at them. So from me to you, I’m a Vietnam-era veteran, all the veterans that went over and served, thank you very much. You are the ones that kept it going, you are the ones that defended so I can come up here and speak in English and honor you. Thank you.”

Other fallen servicemen honored during the commemoration ceremony: LeRoy E. Damiano, Harrison, Army; Robert J. Gordon, Hayden Lake, Marine Corps; Steven M. McArthur, Coeur d'Alene, Army; Steven H. Nipp, Post Falls, Marine Corps; Russel L. Watson, Post Falls, Army; Robert E. Wise, Coeur d’Alene, Army; and those who survived beyond the war but recently passed: Richard L. Camp, Hicksville, Ohio, Air Force; Fred Hinz, Jr., Kellogg, Navy; Richard J. McDonald, Orange County, Calif., Army; Ken I. Thornbrugh, Williamsburg, Kan., Air Force; and Michael J. White, Coeur d'Alene, Army.