More than 670

Huddleston Elementary School students, their teachers and many of their

parents, gathered around the school yard flagpole early Monday morning

of Veterans Day week to honor the nation's veterans and to pay respects

to the flag.

The hubbub

grew as rank upon rank of classes ­ each an inch or two taller than

the one before it ­ paraded to their positions outside the Peachtree

City school. On a signal of teachers' upraised hands, silence fell on

the shivering crowd.

The wind swirled

leaves from nearby trees around a color guard from Cub Scout Pack 175

as they tugged on the lines that raised the Star-Spangled Banner and the

Georgia state flag.

Principal Becky

Maddox welcomed a cadre of approximately a dozen World War II veterans

who were given front row seats to the ceremony. In the crowd, uniforms

of all branches of the U.S. military stood out among the mostly red-white-and-blue

garments of other moms and dads.

Maddox read

several tributes to veterans, and the clear voices of the color guard

led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. Following the singing of the

national anthem and "Proud to be an American," the program concluded

with a trumpet call of Taps before the youngsters returned to their warm

classrooms ­ in respectful silence.