Young soldiers, young children, and old veterans share a bond, Gov. Matt Mead said Tuesday.

Four years ago, Mead started a ceremony for new military enlistments, he told about a hundreds veterans, students and other observers of Veterans Day at the Wyoming State Veterans Cemetery.

"As you look at their faces, first of all, they look very, very young to me, and maybe that's them and maybe that's me, but they're young," he said. "And you can see that they have some nervousness about them, in what they are doing."

Mead recently spoke to some of those enlistees.

"And I suggested to them as they go forward there will be good days and there will be obviously hard days and tough days, but they never stand alone," he said.

"They never stand alone because they stand on a tradition," Mead said. "They stand on the shoulders of vets who served before them. The vets have provided the example of service. The vets have provided the example of honor. The vets have provided the example of what it means to be a great American."

Mead wanted to remind them of those examples as they work in an increasingly dangerous world, he added.

A couple weeks ago, there were three deployments in four days. Those deployments occur about 4:30 a.m., and family members say goodbye to their loved ones.

Those troops also stand on the shoulders and traditions of the veterans that came before them, he said.

And he recently spoke to children at a school and said the flag is a symbol of America, freedoms, liberty and potential.

"But the flag, without our veterans, is just that, a symbol," Mead said.

"It's our veterans that give truth to those words," he said. "It's the service you have provided to our country. It's you standing up and giving the oath to protect and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And not only giving the oath, but going out and doing it."

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