WASHINGTON — When Camille Townsend fulfilled a time-honored obligation in perhaps America’s most sacred spot, she first thought of her father, which morphed into having many veterans in her heart.

“Chris Stanley asked me if I wanted to lay down the wreath,” Townsend, a Chaney High School senior, explained. “He said I would be a great candidate and I said, ‘I’d love to do it.'”

She was referring to having been one of four Youngstown high school students who were asked to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday. The honor was part of a three-day Classroom 2 Capitol field trip to locations in and near the nation’s capital.

Townsend also thought of her late father, Deandrey Abron, who died about two years ago and had served 18 years in the U.S. Army. She also thought about the countless number of soldiers who had placed their lives on hold to serve their country — many of whom never made it home and some whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown.

“It made me see that the military is not all guns and violence; it’s also about people who lost their lives,” she added.

Also partaking in the sacred wreath-laying ceremony — which followed the Changing of the Guard ceremony — were Jordan Brown, an East High sophomore; Henry White, an incoming junior at Rayen Early College; and Niasia Simmons, a Chaney High senior.

While at Arlington, the students also visited former President John F. Kennedy’s resting place, along with that of civil rights icon Medgar Evers, who was assassinated on the driveway of his Jackson, Miss., home June 12, 1963, as he got out of his car. Evers, who was 37, also had served in the Army.

Another emotional pinnacle for many of the students and chaperones was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which tugged at Chris Sicliano Chrestay’s heartstrings and proved to be an experience she found overwhelming.

“I was 7 or 8 when I learned he died. I was on the front porch when my mom told me Joey was killed,” Sicliano Chrestay said about her cousin, Joseph A. Sicliano Jr., who was 19 when he died May 25, 1967, in Vietnam after having stepped on a landmine. The visit Wednesday also coincided with the 55th anniversary of his death.

Sicliano Chrestay, a social worker for Rayen Early College and one of the chaperones, recalled that her cousin, who lived in Girard, had dropped out of high school to serve his country. He also had been injured in combat, but wanted to continue in the military, she said, noting that Sicliano’s family was recently given his high school diploma posthumously.

“Today, I thought that I couldn’t imagine being 18- or 19-year-old boys fighting in such drastic conditions because they were so proud to serve their country,” she continued. “They were just children.”

More than 58,000 Americans were killed during the Vietnam War, including an estimated 3,097 in Ohio, they were told. One hundred soldiers from Mahoning County lost their lives in the war.

Wednesday also was a day of visiting several other sacred spots, including the Lincoln Memorial, where many of the students saw where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech toward the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

The view takes in the National Mall and the Washington Memorial in the distance.

Another stopping point was the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, which captures American soldiers holding a flag after the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions invaded the small island about 700 miles south of Tokyo on Feb. 19, 1945. Two days later, the 28th Regiment of the 5th Division reached the base of Mount Suribachi before nearly surrounding it.

On Feb. 23, Marines in Company E, 2nd Battalion successfully made it up the mountain before an American flag flew from the top.

Wednesday’s itinerary also included a stop at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, as well as one honoring former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The King Memorial starts with a “mountain of despair and a stone of hope,” and also has a granite wall on which many well-known quotes from his speeches and writings are inscribed.