Veterans shared their wartime experiences with students Wednesday.

The seminar, called Journey of a Hero, was put on by Military Student Services. The speakers were Cpt. Regis Snyder, who fought in the Vietnam War, and Private Don Schoo, who fought in World War II.

“[It was] pretty insightful, to say the least, to hear about how it was back then,” said Rutger Glocker, senior electrical engineering major. “[I] couldn’t help but be inspired by it.”

Schoo was a private in the Army. He participated in the landing on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy.

“[Schoo] really [got] into detail about his experiences. [He] actually … put you there with him almost, and [Snyder] talk[ed] to you like you were old pals, like a family member would,” said junior sociology major Rebekah Guillotte.

Schoo spent 305 days in combat as a machine gunner with the 80th infantry division and was the recipient of several military decorations, including the Bronze Star medal and the the Combat Infantryman Badge. He was also named a Knight of the Legion of Honor by the president of France.

“It was pretty cool how despite all the bad stuff they were able to put a bright side to it and chuckle about their time serving,” Glocker said.

Schoo has lived in DeKalb since he was 14 years old.

Snyder was a captain in the Vietnam War. He was assigned to Battalion 5th Artillery and 1st Battalion 26th Infantry, the “Blude Spaders.” He was in combat from August 1968 to August 1969.

“When getting speakers for events like these we do a lot of outreach to a number of resources of the armed forces to find the veterans that will come and speak with everyone,” said Jarvis Purnell, acting director of Military Student Services. “Our goals of these events is to be able to give people a better understanding of servicemen [and] women — a perspective to look at they might not learn about. Even though these gentleman served a while ago, their experiences aren’t too far off from today.”