Today is a day we remember our veterans. On the 11th day... of the 11th month... at the 11th hour... it was the real end of WWI. The fighting would finally stop. The treaty was signed June 28, 1919, however, the fighting ceased seven months earlier. 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.”
President Wilson called it Armistice Day in 1919. The day has taken on some changes as the generation who lived it were fewer and fewer. Wars continued and courageous men and women took up arms and put themselves in harm's way to defend their country and all that they loved back home. Veterans Day honors them all.
I am grateful we continue to hold on to the 11/11 date to keep the history alive.
I've heard the story many times of a gentleman arriving in France with a passport to be stamped. Someone assumed it was his first time in France to which he said, "No, but it is the first time to have my passport stamped." The agent was confused and asked when he had been there previously without a passport. He replied, "The last time I was here was on June 6, 1944. I arrived on a ship off the banks of Normandy." D-Day is remembered as the beginning of the end of WW2.
I am always moved by the stories. These wars were fought on the battlefields and by ordinary citizens who secretly did all they could do to resist the evils in front of them. Those veterans did not talk about the things they saw and the things they were called to do on the frontlines. I only recently learned that my Grandmother's brother and his family were at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. So were a couple of her cousins. They all survived, but so many did not. (Thanks, Cindy St. John for sharing the stories and pictures.)
Our Veterans of yesterday and today carry the weight of the memories made in the rice paddies of Vietnam and in the war on terror in unfamiliar desert lands. I am grateful for the ones who signed up for the unknown and served with courage. I am grateful for their continued service in our communities in many different ways upon coming home. Many are grateful for the GI Bill that offered them educational opportunities after their service.
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." -John 15:13
We salute them today with much deserved honor and respect. Sometimes, there are no words.
Today, I am grateful for Veterans Day.
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