Richard Langhoff encouraged a crowd gathered at Center School on Monday to remember veterans, particularly those who died in battle and those they left behind.

"Their heroism seems mighty in our midst," said Langhoff, the chaplain for Mattapoisett's Florence Eastman American Legion Post 280. "They fought for us and for us they fell. All the world, because of what they gave, is in debt to them."

Langhoff, an Air Force and Vietnam veteran, was the principal speaker at Mattapoisett's annual Memorial Day ceremony, this year held inside due to the weather.

The ceremony had a special focus on those who served in World War II, partly due to a program discovered this year by Veterans Agent Barry Denham and reprinted, in part, on the program.

Seventy years ago, on July 4, 1946 the town held a welcome home party for those who returned from the war. The program costs ten cents and included the names of four men who did not return home: Romeo Farley, Robert Atsatt, Allen Bowman and Robert Dexter.

Denham spoke on the importance of veterans and the long-standing American Legion hall. He issued a plea to young veterans to join.

"We don't want to see it close," he said, of the local post. "We are sorely in need of young veterans to come forward. We're getting old, we're getting fewer."

The audience also heard from Rep. Bill Straus and Selectmen Chair Tyler Macallister along with patriotic songs played by the Old Hammondtown Concert School Band.

Luke Thomas Cuoto, a student at Old Rochester Regional Junior High School recited the Gettysburg Address.