They came from the battlefields of Europe and from the deserts and mountains of Iraq and Afghanistan to collectively express their deepest appreciation for those who have served and continue to serve in the U.S. armed forces.

At the 62nd annual Mayor’s Memorial Day ceremony Monday morning, Hawaii Army National Guard Lt. Col. Rusty Spray said it took two combat tours in Iraq and Kuwait with the 29th Brigade Combat Team for him to understand the significance of the service at Punchbowl.

“I can’t describe it,” said Spray, who served in Iraq in 2005 and Kuwait two years later driving supply convoys into Iraq.

“Now it means everything.”

Spray was among representatives of more than 60 military and veterans organizations who laid floral wreaths at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific’s declaratory stone at Punchbowl during the one-hour memorial service.

Also laying a floral tribute was University of Hawaii and McKinley High School graduate Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war helicopter pilot who represented the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as an assistant secretary.

In his first Memorial Day address, Mayor Peter Carlisle also paid tribute to the veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He asked the audience of several hundred for a moment of silence for those who continue to serve today — “especially those who face danger far from their homes and loved ones.”

Under a bright, blue sky, Carlisle paid tribute to the more than 51,000 veterans who are buried or interred at Punchbowl. Their gravestones were marked with lei and small American flags.

“We remember each of them,” Carlisle said. “And we remember all those resting on foreign shores and at the bottom of the seas.

“We remember those who perished in combat and those who were starved in captivity; those who remain missing in action; those who came home to become great leaders; and those who were never quite whole again.

“We owe a place in our hearts and minds to those who have served our nation.

“Let us continue to hope for a more peaceful future, and let us strive to attain that goal, as elusive as it may seem. We owe no less to those who we honor here today.”

World War II nisei veteran Eddie Yamasaki, 87, said occasions like today and the annual September memorial service for members of the 100th Battalion, 442nd

Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service and the 1099th Engineers “brings back memories of all the guys, especially those who never came back.”

Yamasaki, a Harvard-educated business executive, served with the 442nd’s I Company in World War II, said the occasions are bittersweet remembrances.

“It’s sad. It’s also good, not only for myself personally, but to see so many people gathered here remembering every war, every theater, including Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Korean War veterans Herb Schnreiner and Richard Poe presented the wreath for the Korean War Veterans Association, Hawaii Chapter 1.

“It means a lot to me,” said Schreiner, 81, who lost a brother in Korea. “It’s our duty to honor the fallen.”

Poe, 80, said his participation is to pay tribute to his father, who died in World War II, and three brothers-in-law who served in Korea.

The Punchbowl service ended with airmen from Hickam’s honor guard firing a 21-rifle salute and the playing of “Taps” by Seaman Ann Franek of the Pacific Fleet Band.

The missing-man flyover was performed by the two F-15 fighter jets from the Montana Air National Guard, which has taken over aerial defense of the islands while the Hawaii Air National Guard’s 199th Fighter Squadron is being trained on F-22 Raptor combat jets.