LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — Stewart Marshall, 91, walked into a room full of hundreds of admirers.
More than 70 years after he served in World War II, he had a Bronze Star and a U.S. Army medal of commendation pinned to his chest.
"I appreciate it very much, but I'm a little uneasy," Marshall said.
Marshall doesn't use a cane to walk, doesn't wear glasses and isn't afraid of large crowds.
He was uneasy because he finds it hard to accept recognition without his Army buddies by his side to receive the same honors.
'It's nice, but I think about the others. The others that aren't here, too, and who did the same thing," he said.
Speakers in a packed room at Sun City Carolina Lakes in Indian Land described Marshall as humble --a quality that has earned him respect, and some laughter too.
Even Congressman Mick Mulvaney who helped him get the long-overdue honors joked about Marshall's dislike of all the attention.
"I was talking to Mr. Marshall on the way in and he said, 'I hope there really isn't too big of a to-do today', and I said, 'Well, bad news,'" Mulvaney said.
A crowd of hundreds cheered as Marshall sat quietly on a stage and listened to someone recount the history of his war effort.
He was part of six different campaigns as a staff sergeant in the Army's 135th Division. One time, he took over a platoon under heavy fire and repelled three direct German attacks.
After the war, he went home to New York and ran several movie theaters.
He went back to work with his family like so many soldiers did at that time.
He rarely talked about the war or what he did there while serving in Africa and Italy.
Dan Sadvary runs a veteran's honor group at Sun City. Out of 6,000 residents in the community of retirees, about 700 are veterans. There are 20 living World War II veterans left there.
Sadvary said they're all the same in at least one way.
"A lot of these guys don't want to talk about their brave actions during the war, so they just let it go," Sadvary said.
That's why it's nearly always family or friends who push for the overdue medals and honors for war veterans, rarely the veterans themselves.
Marshall told Channel 9 it's not that he doesn't want to talk about the war, but that it's too hard to explain the experience.
"There's nothing you can say about war, or being in a fight. It's hard to relate it," he said. "There's nothing like it in civilian life."
Marshall said he used to keep track of all the men in his platoon by writing their names in a journal. He'd cross out their names when they were killed in combat.
One time he received four new replacements, but they all died before he could even add their names to his book.
"I never knew who they were," Marshall said.
On Tuesday, he collected a total of nine medals --so many that he could hardly carry them all.
As the Color Guard marched with the flag, the National Anthem rang out and the applause came in waves. Marshall sat quietly on a stage, demonstrating the same humility that got him here.