CENTER TWP — A retirement and assisted living facility is honoring veterans this week with dog tags commemorating their service.

Newhaven Court at Clearview annually honors its 20 veterans each year, but this year is the debut of the Dog Tag Project.

Don Boardman, Newhaven environmental services director, said it’s more meaningful to give people a symbol.

“We decided to do it more graphically,” Boardman said.

Being a military veteran of Operation Desert Storm, Boardman knows the significance of having tags.

Boardman of West Sunbury said the new tags are especially poignant for those who no longer have the originals.

“Most of them don’t have dog tags anymore,” he said.

Resident Ed Mills, 87, said he appreciates getting a replacement tag.

“I was over in Korea,” Mills said.

Mills, who left the Asian country in 1947, no longer has his original tags.

Along with resident veterans, Newhaven is distributing dog tags to staff who were enlisted or whose relatives were in the service.

Boardman still has his tags as well as those of his father, Donald C. Boardman, who served in Vietnam, and his maternal grandfather, Robert A. Shaw, who served during World War II.

However, Boardman does not have one for his paternal grandfather, Clarence H. Boardman, who served in World War I, so he’s getting new tags for him.

“It reminds me of the people who served,” he said.

Newhaven residents, their families and staff participated by filling out tags listing the names of veterans. The engraved versions will be distributed by the end of the week.

Kathy Roudybush, Newhaven activities director, went all the way back to the Revolutionary War in recognizing veterans related to residents or staff.

Roudybush said the project is a good way to honor veterans for their service.

While researching ancestors in the military, a Newhaven employee discovered her grandfather went missing in action on June 3, 1969.

The grandfather’s ship, the USS Frank E. Evans, was struck by an Australian aircraft carrier during an exercise. More than 70 sailors died in that accident.

The vessel, which was named after a World War I general, had been in service since 1944.

There is an effort to have the sailors’ names added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

The Dog Tag Project is one of multiple activities, including a Veterans Day social and playing music from the World War II era, comprising Newhaven’s Veterans Week.

Boardman said a banner will be displayed with the following Gen. George S. Patton quote: “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”