VETERANS’ DAY 2021
It’s 10:59 AM, November 11, 1918 and you are standing in a cold, damp trench waiting for the clock to strike the magic hour-11:00 AM. Off in the distance you hear the chatter of gun fire and wonder why would that be happening now when peace is finally so close. But there are those few who want to kill and maim until the very last second. Now, just now, those final 60 seconds tick by and it is finally 11:00 AM; you can hardly believe your eyes and ears-all is quiet on the western front and across the battle scarred landscape you see soldiers, enemy soldiers just a few seconds ago, standing up, cheering and coming across the fields to shake hands and embrace their fellow soldiers. And so it was one hundred and three years ago.
Now, it is Veterans’ Day, 2021, and we pause to remember all those who have worn the cloth of our great nation. Years ago, this day was known as Armistice Day, the day the war to end all wars came to an end. But less that a quarter of century later, we were faced with another war, a war involving much of the free world against Germany, Japan and Italy. There were many hard fought battles in this war in Europe and the Pacific until the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan brought an abrupt end to the war in 1945. Millions of young men and women served in this war and hundreds of thousands died while even more suffered lasting injuries from the conflict. We thought we were done with war, after all this was our second world war but in just five years we found ourselves embroiled in war between South and North Korea. Technically this war has never ended but both sides agreed to a cease fire.Peace at last but this was not to last. By 1965 we were once again at war in Vietnam. Again,millions wore the cloth of our nation and we lost more than 50,000 young folks while hundreds of thousands were scarred forever. The end came eight years later with the signing of the Paris Peace Accord.Peace at last!
September 11, 2001 dawned bright and shiny and then disaster struck. Four commercial airliners were hijacked and the greatest terrorist attack ever committed in our country brought death to more than 3,000 people and within months we were embroiled in our longest war, nearly 20 years until our final withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Millions of young men and women once again served our nation and hundreds of thousands serve to remind us of the terrible price of war.And so we are once against peace. We still have an Armed Force filled with those who wish to serve our nation. And it is fitting that we take a few moments from our every day hustle bustle to remember them and all those who came before. God bless our military personnel and God bless our great nation.
