POULSBO —While serving in the Army in Korea from 1950-53, Robert L. McClelland twice received the Bronze Star — presented for “Heroic or meritorious achievement or service” in a combat zone.

When he was buried with military honors Sept. 8 in the Poulsbo Municipal Cemetery, there was only one person, besides the three members of the honor guard, present.

Harlan Knudson, a childhood friend of McClelland’s, hopes to correct that on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

VFW Post 2463 will conduct a ceremony at noon Nov. 11 honoring all veterans interred in the Poulsbo Cemetery. The ceremony is open to the public.

McClelland’s death was unknown to three childhood friends — Edward Iversen of Allyn, Dr. Ray Iversen of Poulsbo, and Harlan Knudson of Sequim — with whom he graduated from North Kitsap High School in 1949.

McClelland joined the Army on Nov. 28, 1950 in Seattle, served with distinction in Korea— where he met up with Ed Iversen, who was serving in the Air Force — and was honorably discharged on Nov. 17, 1953 at Fort Lewis.

The Iversens and Knudson were pallbearers at McClelland’s father’s funeral — the elder McClelland, Robert G., was a World War I veteran and Port Gamble mill worker — and they continued to stay in touch over the years.

According to Knudson, the pals wondered why they had not heard from McClelland for a while. Then, in mid-October, Knudson came upon his friend’s grave; McClelland had been interred next to his mom, Mabel McClelland, who died in 1944, and his dad. Ed Iversen then received an email from the executor of McClelland’s estate, having found Iversen’s email after he had arranged and attended McClelland’s funeral.

Knudson said members of the North Kitsap High School Class of 1949 and friends are invited to lay flowers on the grave of their classmate, Robert L. McClelland, Veterans Day weekend.