Two Sharonville police officers who patrol Princeton school hallways traveled to Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 5 to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Officers Jim Salyer and Joel Altman, school resource officers assigned to Princeton High School and Princeton Community Middle School, were part of a delegation honoring military veterans at the ceremony. Both are military veterans themselves.

Only a select number of groups are invited to participate in wreath-laying ceremonies each year.

Princeton City Schools announced the honor on Aug. 11, noting that the two officers served in uniform long before they began watching over students.

For Altman, the Arlington trip connects to years of veteran advocacy in the Princeton corridor. A Coast Guard Reserve veteran with eight years of service and two deployments, Altman built a veteran response program within the Sharonville Police Department after noticing how many local veterans were falling through the cracks after returning home.

He drew support from the Ohio Attorney General's Office, which encourages similar programs statewide, and recruited fellow officers with military backgrounds to join the effort.

Through the program, Altman has helped veterans track down military records and medals, arrange home repairs and wheelchair ramps, and connect with services through the Cincinnati VA. The work has also uncovered exploitation. In one case, a home-health aide was stealing thousands of dollars from a veteran in her care.

Altman has helped organize Honor Flights to Washington, D.C. for local veterans through Honor Flight Tri-State, which has flown approximately 7,800 Tri-State veterans to see their memorials at no cost since the program began, according to WCPO. He also coordinated care supplies for veterans through Princeton Community Middle School's Martin Luther King Jr. service project.

Beyond his police and veteran work, Altman grew up in Sharonville and has written eight children's books, including three for the Cincinnati Reds. His most recent, "Sharonville: A Tour of America's Hometown," follows a character named Sharon The Train through the city's history and landmarks. He worked with a local historian on the project.

"For a lot of kids, they don't understand the history of the country or like where they're from or where they live," Altman said in a July 12 interview with WKRC Local 12 about the book. "It was important to highlight ... everything that goes on as far as the different activities that are here, like the library or the community center."

Salyer, who served in the military before joining the Sharonville Police Department, is the SRO at Princeton High School. His specific branch of service has not been publicly detailed.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has been guarded around the clock since 1937. It holds the remains of unidentified American service members from World War I, World War II and the Korean War.

The veteran response program Altman built was modeled after a similar initiative in Cincinnati and launched in 2021, Fox 19 reported in February 2025.

Upcoming: Veterans can enroll in VA benefits on the spot at TQL Stadium's Veterans Appreciation Day on Aug. 15. More details are available in our earlier coverage.