N.J. Army vet graduates Overbrook High School 50 years later

PINE HILL, N.J. (WPVI) -- It was a special graduation Monday night in South Jersey, nearly 50 years in the making.

The Overbrook High School Class of 2019 welcomed one extra graduate during the ceremony in Pine Hill.

The crowd gave Retired Army Sgt. George Schaefer Jr. a standing ovation when he was presented his diploma.

"You will never know how proud I am to be a part of the class of 2019," Schaefer told his fellow graduates.

Schaefer was supposed to graduate from Overbrook in 1969, but he enlisted into the Army in 1967 and went to fight in Vietnam before he could graduate.

Schaefer wrote the school in December asking if he could get his diploma on what would have been the year of his 50th high school reunion.