Student-teacher Kim Novak, 23, sat in the packed gymnasium at Southern Bluffs Elementary School with her third-grade students Friday. She couldn't hold back her tears as fifth-graders sang "God Bless America" to a group of about 70 veterans.

Cub Scout and Russian immigrant Artur Deick carried an American flag into the gym to start the concert as his troop followed and his peers sang the national anthem.

U.S. Navy veteran Ralph Jurjens stood among the other veterans, many wearing hats adorned with medals.

All were there for the ninth annual Veterans Day concert. The gym's walls were hung with red-white-and-blue bunting. Fifth-graders stood on choir risers, singing a variety of patriotic songs for the veterans.

The day held deep meaning for everyone there. But for Novak, Deick and Jurjens, it was more than just another Veterans Day event.

Novak said watching the veterans and hearing the songs inevitably took her thoughts to her husband, Spc. Anthony Novak of La Crosse.

After 15 months apart, he was scheduled to touch down at Volk Field before dawn today, the end of his deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 2-128 Wisconsin National Guard battalion.

Novak said she's grateful to all veterans, and ecstatic that her husband will be home just in time for his first Veterans Day. The program got her even more excited for his homecoming.

"All of the songs were chosen so well, and each recognized the veterans as the heroes they are," she said.

Led by music teacher Marla Engbloom, their concert included a song for each branch of the armed forces. Veterans rose when their branch was called, and the packed gym serenaded them with applause.

"We are blessed and proud to call you our heroes," said a fifth-grade girl, addressing the veterans.

Deick, a fourth-grader and member of Cub Scout pack 10, den 1, was born in Russia and adopted by a local family, arriving three years ago. He was chosen to carry the flag, he said, because "I'm tallest."

Doing so as the student body sung the national anthem made him a bit nervous, but proud.

"It meant a lot to us because we were able to show respect for our country," he said.

Jurjens, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran and La Crosse County commander of the American Legion, attended the event for the first time after receiving an invitation from Southern Bluffs students.

Fifth-graders sent handwritten letters to relatives who are veterans and to local American Legion chapters, encouraging them to come. When the event began nine years ago, about a dozen veterans came, said principal Mary Lin Wershofen. Friday, she estimated more than 70 were there.

Jurjens left impressed. "It's very inspiring to see young people having a sense of what's come before them," he said. "The country's in good hands with kids like this."

Later, the veterans and students moved outside, as the year's first snow fell at a torrid pace.

Veterans with French Island's American Legion Post 417 fired a 21-gun salute. Another veteran played taps on his bugle. The Cub Scouts stood at attention, saluting the veterans as two Cub Scouts lowered the school's flag to half-mast in tribute to veterans who never returned.