Eleven World War II veterans and two Vietnam veterans were honored Wednesday with a medallion ceremony and a cannon salute during Veterans Day activities at the University of Utah.

The 2009 honorees are:

Delbert J. Bingham: Born and raised in Ogden, Bingham volunteered as a glider pilot, one of the most hazardous jobs in the military. He took to the air in a fully loaded CG-4A Waco glider as part of Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne armada in history. He lived in foxholes for 10 days while fighting alongside the infantrymen. During the next several months, Bingham made numerous flights into France, Belgium and the Netherlands to deliver infantrymen and supplies.

Keith J. Crawford: After graduating from South High School in 1944, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. On Feb. 21, 1945, the Saratoga came under bomber and kamikaze attack. The resulting fires spread to the hangar deck, which was directly above the fire room where Crawford worked to keep the Saratoga moving. Despite the overhead inferno that was melting planes and the fire from the room next to him, Crawford and his crew remained at their stations and fueled the ship.

Jay C. Hess: Hess was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force in 1955. On Aug. 24, 1967, near the Chinese-North Vietnam border, he was flying to help recover downed pilots. After being shot down, he was captured first by Chinese and then handed over to the North Vietnamese. He was taken to the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison and held captive for 2,028 days.

Paul Orval Huber: A University of Utah graduate, Huber joined the Army in January 1941. The following year, he and his men landed at Algiers, North Africa, and captured an airfield. They fought with only small arms because the wrong ammo had been shipped and didn't fit into the breaches of their cannons. A few months later, his unit was embroiled in the famed Battle of Kasserine Pass and shot down five Stuka dive-bombers that strafed their position. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, he landed in the second wave of invaders on Utah Beach.