Veteran's Day

"...That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain..." -Abraham Lincoln

Veteran's day commemorates the signing of the Armistice to end World War I The armistice treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne, some 65 km north-east of Paris, on November 11th, 1918.

(in 1940 Hitler exacted revenge by forcing the French to sign an armistice - on German terms - in the same railway carriage).


The actual fighting between the Allies and Germany ended with the armistice, which went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Armistice Day, as November 11 became known, officially became a holiday in the United States in 1926, and a national holiday 12 years later. On June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all U.S. veterans.

In 1968, new legislation changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.

The United States lost 126,000 men in WW I, but it is important to remember that, while the "War to end all Wars" lasted 4 years, from 1914 to 1918, America didn't enter until 1917. This is not to say that America didn't have any forces in the war prior to their official entrance into the fray. Many Americans were already over there fighting, having enlisted in the French and British armies. There was at least one All-American French squadron fighting the air war in French planes. It was called The "Lafayette Escadrille".

Note: One of the best tributes to Veterans I have ever seen can be found here.

Here is a song written by Eric Bogle in memorial of the brave men who lost their lives in "The Great War":

The Green Fields of France

1) Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here, down by your graveside,
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun.
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
I can see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
when you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen.
Well I hope you died quick, and I hope you died clean,
Oh Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,
did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
Did the bands play the last post and chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?

2.) Did you leave a young wife or sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined,
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In some faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed now forever behind a glass frame
In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,
did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
Did the bands play the last post and chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?

3.) The sun shines bright o'er the green field of France
The warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance,
The trenches are buried long under the plow
There's no gas or barbed wire, there's no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,
did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
Did the bands play the last post and chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?

4.) I can't help but wonder now, Willie McBride,
Do those who lie here really know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the call
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing, the dying, was it all done in vain?
For young Willie McBride, it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,
did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
Did the bands play the last post and chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?