William R. Joyce was 17 years old when he was sent off to fight in World War II in 1943.

Yesterday, more than a half-century after they left Cambridge High and Latin School and the Rindge Technical High School, Joyce and 84 other WWII veterans finally received their high school diplomas in a graduation ceremony at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS).

The ceremony was the culmination of "Operation Recognition," a program started by former Cambridge Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55 to grant diplomas to veterans who left Cambridge high schools to fight in World War II.

Some former soldiers, like Joyce, elatedly hugged old friends. Others broke down in tears. But most were simply glad to fill, at least symbolically, the gap left in their lives when they were called to the front and their childhood came to an abrupt end.

"I'm thrilled right now," said veteran Albert A. Borges, who would have graduated in 1946 but received his diploma yesterday.

"I feel very humble for receiving it," Borges added. "It's a wonderful experience to be recognized like we were today."

NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw was the keynote speaker of "Operation Recognition 2000," held before a respectful crowd of about 400 in CRLS' War Memorial gymnasium.

"I stand in awe of all of you because you have been my teachers," Brokaw said. "We are in awe of your modesty and your determination to be judged by a life lived well."

Brokaw said his life was inalterably changed as veterans told him about their experiences on the beaches of Normandy in 1984, the 40th anniversary of D-Day.

"That day changed my life forever," Brokaw said. "It was the most emotionally wrenching experience that I could imagine out of the death of my father."

In 1998, Brokaw wrote the bestseller The Greatest Generation, extolling the courage of those who contributed to the war effort.

"Every day of my life I am reminded of the stories that are between those two hard covers," Brokaw said.

Brokaw said that many people have told him that his book has helped to bring veterans' families together and has encouraged former soldiers to talk about their often brutal battle experiences for the first time.

One western Pennsylvania man told Brokaw how he tried to save a friend whose leg was blown off at the hip by a land mine at the Battle of the Bulge. The wounded soldier died two days later.

"For 55 years I have waited to tell the husband's wife his last words were about her," the Pennsylvania veteran told Brokaw.

After tracking down the wife through the Veterans Administration, Brokaw added, the Pennsylvania man finally got his wish.

Other speakers, most of whose parents fought in the war, echoed Brokaw's comments.

"These WWII veterans were just a few years past Little League age [when they left for the war]," said Robert McKean of the Massachusetts Department of Veterans' Services (MDVS). "It's a service and a legacy that will be remembered for generations to come."

MDVS Commissioner Thomas G. Kelley said he hopes that the sacrifice those who fought in the war made means that future generations will not have to fight in wars themselves.

"They were ordinary young men and women who grew up much too fast," Kelley said. "We pray that you may never have to make a choice to go off to war."

U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.) said his father only told him about his war experience late in his life, after he began telling his grandchildren about it.

"For 50 years he carried German shrapnel in his leg and back," Capuano said. "For the entire time, he told me not one thing that happened to him in WWII, not one...I wish I had known earlier."

Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio reminded the audience of the important role women played in the war effort.

"The women were very important to your society," Galluccio said.

But the focus of the graduation ceremony--the high school's first in the 21st century--was veterans.

John J. DeLeo, who was supposed to graduate in 1944, said that his three brothers were already fighting in the war when he volunteered to go to the front.

"If you think I was going to stay home and wait for them, you're nuts," DeLeo said.

DeLeo said that he learned most of his information about the technical and strategic aspects of the war from the History Channel, not from his actual battle experiences.

"When I'm there, you don't know what the hell's going on," DeLeo said.

And after embracing fellow veteran Lafayette L. Bingham, Sr., Joyce emphasized that many did not survive the war.

"[Only] some of the people managed to make it home," Joyce said.

419 Cantabrigians died in the war.

Hugh G. Reid, a veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam, said getting his diploma after more than five decades was "fantastic."

"It took 50 years to get it," he said, chuckling.

Program emcee John Caulfield said that the veterans attending the ceremony were teenagers until the war intervened.

"All of a sudden the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, the Germans declare war, they get up and go to war," Caulfield said. "They returned changed by their experience. They watched America change too."

In the 1940s, CRLS--formed by the 1977 merger of Cambridge High and Latin and Rindge Tech--did not exist. Instead, a fiery rivalry existed between Cambridge's two high schools.

Caulfield, a 1944 High and Latin graduate, jokingly renewed that rivalry--best exemplified in the schools' annual football game--yesterday.

"Cambridge High and Latin 44, Rindge Tech nothing," Caulfield said. "There are a lot of scowling eyes out there," he added a moment later as the audience laughed.

Cambridge Director of Veterans' Services Robert Stevens said he was glad that yesterday's ceremony was held before the city's WWII veterans pass away.

"We're losing these guys at a rate that's alarming," Stevens said, adding that four Cambridge veterans passed away while the planning for yesterday's ceremony was taking place.

Stevens said that a search committee considered Steven Spielberg and Matt Damon as possible speakers before aiming their efforts at Brokaw, the longtime NBC anchor. One search committee member is a friend of Brokaw, making it easier to convince him to speak at CRLS rather than at numerous other WWII graduation ceremonies taking place across the country.

After his speech, Brokaw told The Crimson that he will only be speaking at a few other WWII graduation ceremonies this year.

Brokaw said he will give the George Marshall Lecture at the University of Washington later this spring.

After Brokaw's "Address to Graduates" and remarks by Galluccio and Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D'Alessandro, the assembled veterans finally received their degrees.

As recently retired Mayor Duehay read their names, each veteran approached the podium escorted by a current CRLS student.

"It's something I should have got the night before I went into the service," said veteran Joseph A. DeLeo, John's DeLeo's brother.

As swing music filled the gymnasium and spry veterans raced to eat cream puffs and chocolate-covered strawberries following the ceremony, DeLeo relished the fact he was a high school graduate at long last.

"Now I finally got my diploma," DeLeo said. "I'm very happy about that."