WASHINGTON – Tom Hardy Sr. has nine battle stars from his service in the Pacific, but he never mentioned that to Devere J. Crook on Friday as they stood near the Pacific pavilion at the World War II Memorial.

Rather, the Navy man from Bangor and the young officer, a veteran of the Iraq war, talked ships, discovering that Hardy had served on a Fletcher-class destroyer 60 years ago, and Crook on the new USS Fletcher DD-992 in recent times.

For a moment, six decades of history met on a few steps of granite.

“It’s beautiful,” Hardy said of the World War II Memorial, adding that he’d sure like to bring his wife, Sally, to see it.

Wake Island, the Marshalls, the Gilberts, the Philippines, Saipan, the Marianas Turkey Shoot – where “the Japanese tried to trick us,” Hardy recalled, were some of the battles during his two years in the Pacific on a ship that screened other ships from the enemy.

Hardy was one of about 40 World War II veterans in the group of nearly 140 people, age 13 to 90, on the one-day tour organized by Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor.

In twos and threes, veterans from various eras, troop greeters, museum volunteers, schoolteachers and other members of the community stood before the Maine pillar at the monument, some of them urging Gov. John Baldacci to join them for a snapshot.

At 2:30 p.m., the Maine group took its turn for a commemorative service on the granite plaza, with the Lincoln Memorial in the distance. Tourists turned to watch as 16-year-old Rianne Barker, a Washington Academy student and member of the Washington County Children’s Chorus, led everyone in the national anthem.

On a trip to Europe with the chorus to commemorate the liberation of Luxembourg, Barker and the other singers had heard veterans of that country and the United States talk about their World War II experiences.

“I can’t imagine the courage it must have taken for them to tell the stories that they did,” she read from her prize-winning patriotic essay during the service. “I heard the pain in their voices as they tried to speak. I saw the tears that flooded their eyes. I saw their bodies tense up as they went on about horrific ordeals that took place while they each fought for their country. I saw these men start to cry at the words we sang. I saw men reunite with their American friends they had fought with and hadn’t seen since the war.”

“Their sacrifices are not in vain,” Baldacci said. “Nor are they ever forgotten.”

During the ceremony, cheers went up for Galen Cole, who had spent several months putting Friday’s trip together. But he was directing all eyes to the schoolteachers who have been bringing classes to the Cole Museum for the Patriot Program, where they interview veterans from several wars.

Pointing out Debra Butterfield of Gardiner Regional Middle School, Cole said, “When she was at Oxford Hills Middle School, her classes raised $700 for this memorial.”

The history lesson lasted all day long. Three buses, organized by Joe Cyr of Old Town, took Mainers on a tour of the capital, the second bus guided by a woman whose father was one of the Tuskegee airmen in World War II.

Approaching the Korean War Memorial, Korean veteran Don Guptill and wife, Gloria, of Bangor paused to study faces etched in the monument, with bronze statues of soldiers reflected in the shiny granite.

“I get the chills every time I see it,” said Del Hainer of Hampden, who was a nurse in Korea.

Moving on to the Lincoln Memorial, Andrew and Ruby (Leet) Maliszewski of Verona walked hand in hand. For Ruby, a MASH nurse from Greenville who tended the wounded in Sicily, and Andrew, whose ship escorted Roosevelt partway to Yalta, the memorials were “beautiful.”

Gordon Warner of Levant, a troop greeter and veteran of Vietnam and Desert Storm, paused quietly as he took in the expanse of the Vietnam Memorial, which he had seen only as a traveling exhibit in Maine.

Tributes to the veterans took place throughout the day in various forms.

Pan Am President David Fink, who had donated the services of the 727 jet that flew the group directly to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, was on hand at 6 a.m. as the travelers checked in at Bangor International Airport.

Bangor police Sgt. Ward Gagner came in hours early to see the group off, and was there – along with a few troop greeters, when the Mainers landed home at 9 p.m.

In Washington, lunch was ready when the visitors entered a private dining room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud joined the group there and visited with several of the Mainers.

“This means so much to me because my father is a World War II vet,” Collins explained, “and he taught me from an early age to honor these veterans. He taught me they sacrificed enormously so we could live in a free country.”

A few minutes later, addressing the veterans, she said, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to have my heroes here.”

During the morning tour, buses passed the site where activists were preparing for Saturday’s rally against the war in Iraq.

Bangor Mayor Frank Farrington, who served in the military in the 1950s, told the Maine veterans: “It’s ironic to me. What you did gives those folks the right to protest.”

Outside the World War II Memorial, “Welcome Maine Veterans” signs greeted the visitors, a salute by Wayne Hanson, Dan Smith and Dave Moulton of the Maine State Society in Washington.

It was the first trip to Washington for Ricky Bradeen of Medford, who has greeted some 500 troop flights at Bangor International Airport. There was no question what impressed him most about the tour.

“It was the World War II Memorial,” the youth said. “All the veterans were so proud to have a memorial just for them.”

“It meant so much to me to see the memorial,” said the Rev. Sid Buzzell of Bangor, a soldier from Sangerville during World War II in Europe.

As the Pan Am plane descended over Bangor Friday evening, a chorus of “God Bless America” rose from the tired but happy travelers.