Some walked, some pushed but all remembered.

Local veterans and their families gathered to stroll along Orange Lake in New Port Richey Saturday. Each step was more than a point towards their pedometers. Each movement forward was in honor of our veterans.

“When I walk around the lake there, it’s like being in church,” said Terry Kline, a veteran and a long-standing member of the West Pasco Historical Society.

The society sits on the edge of Orange Lake. Around the body of water sit monuments, each dedicated to a branch of the military. It’s a fitting spot to honor those who risked it all – and those who gave all.

Dan Callaghan, vice president of the Society, led the march around the lake.  The organization has put on this walk for the past three years. It’s usually a bigger event, Callaghan said, with music and a Color Guard. This year’s event was smaller and low-key, but that’s not a bad thing.

“To me this is perhaps a better event than we’ve had in the past where it’s been sort of the glitter and the glamour,” Callaghan said. “This is just going to be people who served sharing a moment and to me it’s really what this event should be.”

The group stopped at each monument. They had a moment of silence, shared stories and even poems.

Terry Kline shared a poem he wrote when he came back to the United States after serving with the Marine Corps in Vietnam. He thought he’d be welcomed home as a hero, but he was ambushed at the airport by an activist group.

“They called me a baby killer,” he said.

Kline said he felt lost, but eventually he found the Historical Society. They supported him and now, he does his best to help others.

“I would’ve been lost if it wasn’t for the people of this society, who took me in and understood,” he said.

There’s an understanding among veterans, Kline said, that’s hard to replicate. It’s beyond verbal communication.

“It comes from camaraderie with your fellow veterans,” he said. “For me to try to say to you the feelings, you could never understand them. With them, all I have to do is look in their eyes and shake their hand and they understand.”

The society plans to hold the event again next year, but maybe with a little more flair the next time around. For more information about the West Pasco Historical Society, check out http://westpascohistoricalsociety.org/