“I don’t think any one of us here think we’re heroes. The real heroes are the ones that never came back.”

That was Korean War veteran Eugene Mallia Sr.’s message to Leonard Elementary fifth-graders Friday morning.

During the school’s annual Veterans Day celebration, Mallia and a few of the other former servicemen in attendance shared some thoughts and words of wisdom with the kids.

Those who spoke agreed with Mallia that veterans don’t view themselves as heroes.

“At a (certain) point, it’s a job,” said Iraq War veteran Ian Hauser, an Addison Township resident who spent seven years in the U.S. Army. “We all enlisted for different reasons. We all had different jobs.”

“We all did our part . . . We did what we were supposed to do and unfortunately, some (of us) didn’t come home,” said Vietnam War veteran James Hubbard, of Orion Township.

Oxford resident James Shivers, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, talked about fear and how it’s a natural feeling. He told students that everyone gets scared, even soldiers in the heat of battle.

“I was really scared,” he said.

But fear isn’t a bad thing, according to Shivers, because overcoming it makes people “stronger” and “more apt to do things” they didn’t think they were capable of.

Shivers sought to inspire the kids by reminding them they’re young and have the “whole world” in front of them. “There’s nothing you can’t do . . . if you really want to do it,” he said.

Hubbard, who serves as commander of North Oakland Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 334, concluded the ceremony by asking students to remember there are still U.S. servicemen and women stationed in Afghanistan.

“Unfortunately, I have a grandson and a granddaughter over there right now . . . They’re doing the same thing that we did – fighting the fight that goes on in this world,” he said.

Hubbard expressed his hope that one day, there will be an end to war and the “insanity” that comes with it.