Locals Veterans Day ceremonies honor those who've served

McHENRY – Howard Lexow, 79, spent Tuesday morning meticulously passing out ribbon-shaped flag pins to everyone at the McHenry Veterans of Foreign War Hall. He was at one of the many Veterans Day ceremonies throughout the community. Although it’s been more than six decades since he joined the Army at 16 years old in 1946, Lexow's memories of the experience remain vivid. The first thing that he recalls is his experience traveling on a ship that collected dead bodies – 5,300 of them. In the aftermath of World War II, Lexow said he didn’t realize how awful the duties were until one day, as a cook on the ship, he was assigned to taking food to the morticians. “I had never seen a dead body in my life,” he said. “It was a shock to me at 17 [yea