MOULTRIE — A highly decorated Vietnam veteran said he would rather see people in classes learning what veterans have done for them than taking a day off from school and work.

Albert Spears, adjutant and quartermaster of the Georgia Veterans of Foreign Wars, was the speaker at the annual Veterans Day luncheon at Moultrie Technical College on Tuesday. Spears is a Vietnam veteran and has been awarded the Legion of Merit, seven Bronze Star Medals including one with “V” for Valor, the Air Medal, the Department of Defense Meritorious Service Medal, four Army Meritorious Service Medals, four Army Commendation Medals, three Army Achievement Medals, two National Defense Service Medals, and the Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, as well as several foreign and unit awards.

Spears said he would rather see people in school learning about what veterans do rather than having a day off from school or work. It would allow them to better understand the sacrifices veterans have made throughout American history.

“There’s no place I’d rather be than with veterans and with those honoring veterans,” Spears said. “I’ve found over the years that I’d much rather have folks in school or in educational institutions learning about Veteran’s Day than have a day off to go to the Macy’s Veteran’s Day sale.”

To help the crowd at Moultrie Tech better understand how Veteran’s Day began, Spears took them back to Europe in 1918. As leaders from the Central Powers and Allied Forces sat together at a table, an armistice that brought an end to World War I was signed by the Central Powers at 5 a.m. Nov. 11, 1918.

A few hours later, “at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month,” Spears said the battlefields in the war became silent. Many cheers and tears went out as news of the armistice spread, bugles sounded and soldiers were consumed by the shock of peace.

“None of us could imagine the horror, the filth and the stench of the battlefield,” Spears said.

Over five million Americans served in segregated units during World War I, Spears said. There were 116,000 of them who died, 53,000 from combat and 63,000 of non-combat wounds, and 204,000 soldiers injured in battle.

“Americans heard the call and answered it,” Spears said. “Europeans did not see American’s determination to fight and win every battle.”

World War I was also the first modern war, as Spears said it saw the first uses of air bombings, machine guns, poison gas, tanks, submarines, motor vehicles and phones. It also saw the use of medical facilities with ambulances in use and trenches along with the final successful calvary charge in war.

America first proclaimed Armistice Day in 1919 to honor America’s World War I veterans, but Spears said a Kansas shoe store owner expanded it in 1953. Al King, a shoe store owner in Emporia, Kan., began honoring all veterans on Armistice Day.

President Dwight Eisenhower, a World War II general, signed the Veteran’s Day Bill into law the following year to honor all American war veterans.

“Today we honor the 25 million Americans who have served,” Spears said. “Every generation of Americans owes a debt of gratitude to those past and present who put themselves aside and answered the call.”

The luncheon was held at the college’s Veterans Parkway campus and was sponsored by Bill’s Produce, Wal-Mart, Winn Dixie, and Polar Refrigeration. The Moultrie Technical College Student Leadership Council also contributed.