“Lord, bid war’s trumpet cease; Fold the whole earth in peace.”
Today being Veteran’s Day I won’t write my usual blatterings; instead, I’m posting a bit about the day.
Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day, and today’s date was chosen for its symbolic significance. November 11 observed the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, which marked the armistice of World War I. The first Armistice Day in the U.S. occurred on November 11, 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson declared that “to us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory. … ”
Armistice Day was declared a legal holiday by Congress nearly 20 years later. In 1954 the name was changed to Veterans Day, following a national campaign to have the day honor all veterans, not just those who served in World War I.
EULOGY FOR A VETERAN
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint of snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain
When you awaken in the mornings hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight
I am the soft stars that shine at night
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I DID NOT DIE
Author Unknown
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November 11, 2011 at 12:31 pm
As You knoiw we don’t have that day or anything like it over here. Soon it’ll be two hundred years since my country participated in any war.
Cold and foggy here today and this morning I had to start one radiator so it wouldn’t be way to cold when I came home 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
November 11, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Christer,
I envy the record of your country and war. We have had far too many.
Getting colder here too and it’s damp which chills the bones.
November 12, 2011 at 1:51 pm
I don’t really understand Christers remark especially in the light of the 163rd German Infantry division being given free passage across the country. Selective neutrality perhaps ? The issue of the 163 is a matter of open discussion
November 11, 2011 at 12:34 pm
We were in England on Veterans Day one year and discovered their habit of silencing the entire country for two minutes. Everyone stops what they’re doing. The radio stations go quiet. The tvs are silent. Since then, I try to do the same thing myself, but it doesn’t have the same power as an entire nation doing the same thing at once. Can you imagine getting everyone in the U.S. to shut up for two whole minutes?
November 11, 2011 at 6:18 pm
sprite,
I think we should do ths same here and have thought that for years, but I agree it would never happen here. England felt the devastation of war first hand and from 1939 until we entered the war in late 1941, it was England who bore the burden of the war itself.
November 12, 2011 at 11:08 am
http://www.warmemorials.net/redpoppy.htm
I
November 11, 2011 at 1:42 pm
And so the poppies are worn and we remember, A John Williams who walked down to the recruiting office and signed up on the first day of the First War and fought until being blown up on Vimy Ridge with the 1/19s who went on to destruction at the Somme. And Geoffrey B Mason was was only 16 when he joined the Royal Rifles and was gassed at Arles. I loved you as my Grandfathers and I remember your extraordinary courage and bravery.
You are both gone but will never be forgotten.
November 11, 2011 at 6:22 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Nor would I have ever forgotten them and their courage and bravery.
My father graduated from high school at age 16 but his mother wouldn’t sign to let him enlist. 7 months later, on the day he turned 17, he enlisted. Before he was 18 his ship was sunk by the Germans, and he was the only sailor from his half of the ship who was found alive. He spend months in a hospital in Plymouth, England where they managed to save his legs. Years later, I was with him when he went back to Plymouth for the first time. It was amazing to watch him.
November 12, 2011 at 11:00 am
It’s hard to over state how much they sacrificed. We remember and we honor them.
November 11, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Shutting up for a few seconds, maybe. A second of silence. The day is often mistaken for support of wars and the soldiers who died. Because we have oil wars, and wars that shouldn’t have happened their is so much controversy. I always say the best thing now we can do for our soldiers, is bring them home, and give them the finest health care, shelter, and all the things that were promised to them when they went into the war. I think the Universal Soldier would also be a good song… Jewels doesn’t understand the time change and wakes me early, and then I have trouble napping.
Sleepy Waves,
Lori
November 11, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Lori,
I don’t know anyone who thinks of today as supporting war. They see it as honoring those who have fought and those who made the supreme sacrifice. Soldiers don’t decide which war or why war, they just support their country.
November 11, 2011 at 2:30 pm
We went to the parade earlier today and it was mostly Vietnam Veterans so I was delighted. We made sure we honored the older veterans but there are fewer this year and it’s cold and windy here in Florida, 63 degrees, so we bundled up for the first time this year. I call it our Global warming. Years ago we always stayed in the 70’s and 55 to 60 degrees overnight. Yesterday’s high was 87, again not usual for Floridians. The snow birds love it.
November 11, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Z&Me,
My local daily had a huge article highlighting 7 vets from the Vietnam War. What astonished me was this: from 1965 to 1975, 2.9 million served in-country. Only about 850,000 are alive.
November 11, 2011 at 10:42 pm
World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Many of our soldiers came home suffering from “Shell Shock”. World War II followed only a short time later and made World War I look like a school yard fight. Many of our soldiers came home from that conflict and from the Korean war suffering from “Battle Fatigue”. The Korean war was really only a “police action”.
During the Viet Nam war, the longest conflict in U.S. history and the first conflict fought on the nightly TV news. And, many of our soldiers came home suffering from PTSD, (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). It sounds less devastating than “Shell Shock” and more removed from reality than “Battle Fatigue”. No matter how we try to make a war sound better it’s still hell on everyone involved .
As our soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2012, I hope that we will never again have to send our young men and woman to fight on foreign soil. Maybe if we still called PTSD “Shell Shock” the general public would pressure the politicians to think twice or three times before putting our young people in harms way. I vote for the two minutes of silence on November eleven at the eleventh hour.
November 12, 2011 at 12:47 am
Bob,
I’d hate to see the war to end all wars because it will also be the end of the human race. When were we ever without a war?
I agree that euphemisms need to go-call it what it is whether it be shell shock or the shock of war and devastation of any other words which graphically describe war and its aftermath.
We need those 2 minutes to keep us remembering.
November 12, 2011 at 5:00 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I looked this up as I had forgotten Sweden’s part in WWII and Germany.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1146462/Revealed-How-neutral-Sweden-secret-loans-Nazi-Germany-WWII.html
November 12, 2011 at 5:02 pm
My Dear Hedley,
The Veterans of Foreign Wars always sell red poppies this time of year, and I never fail to buy one. I usually stick it into a button hole so people will see it and remember.
November 12, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Movement of troops, raw material, ball bearings….the list is long and sordid
November 12, 2011 at 11:14 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I had no idea until your comment.
November 13, 2011 at 7:54 am
Honestly I wasn’t trying to be mean, but there was something other than neutrality. Selective collaboration to avoid invasion and fighting and a clear decision to benefit the economy.
November 13, 2011 at 10:24 am
My Dear Hedley,
I understood your ire. It didn’t seem mean to me, just a quick reaction.