A Veteran's Day Salute

Today is a special day to honor all veterans and currently serving military.  It is not just a day for mattress sales and good deals.  It is a day of honor.  So with that said I want to honor all of my family and friends who have served.  My family has covered the gauntlet of military branches....Frank, Daddy, my grandfather, Jeff, Carla, Taylor, and Gregory were all in the Navy.  I have numerous cousins and friends in the Air Force and Army.  I even have a few Marines to honor.  Thank you to the American soldier.  Thank you all for the freedoms I have.  Do you know how Veteran's Day came to be?  I thought I would look it up and the best place to go was the Department of Veteran's Affairs.  History of Veterans Day from the Department of Veteran's Affairs goes like this: World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities.  This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect.  In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.

Our nephew Edwin has written a poem about today that I just felt like I needed to share. He is currently serving in the Army and stationed in the Chicago area. 

A Day To Remember

The Soldier goes and fights
So you can have your rights
You celebrate with hamburger and fries...
All because the Soldier dies
A day to remember
Eleven November

A beautiful Sunday morn
A day that will be morn
Everyone there has a frown
Because the Arizona went down
A day to remember
Seven December

A few decades later
We’ll thinking all is better
Tuesday the towers fall
Tuesday we all stood tall
A day to remember
Eleven September

We can celebrate with hamburgers and fry
But take a moment and remember why
A Soldier goes and fights
So you can have your rights
A day to remember
Eleven November

By: Edwin Newman