Happy Veterans Day .... and Thank You.

Note on the History of Veterans/Armistice Day

Here is a note on the history of Veterans Day, which orginally was Armistice Day, marking the end of WWI.
[From my book on the Christmas truce]

By October of 1918, everywhere, hopes were rising
for an armistice. In the first week, Austria-Hungary
and Germany had sent notes to the United States,
seeking an armistice based on President Woodrow
Wilson's “Fourteen Points.”
73
Armistice: The Ending of Hostilities
On 11 November, the warring parties signed the armistice,
bringing that great bloodbath to an end.
Only those who suffered through those cataclysmic
events truly understood the meaning of that day.
On the Continent, Russia and Germany had each
seen 1.7 million of their own soldiers slaughtered.
Between them, some 9 million were wounded.
France saw 1.3 million of its soldiers sacrificed, and
over 4 million wounded. Austria-Hungary suffered
about the same number of tragic loses.
Great Britain mourned almost a million soldiers and
twice that number suffered wounds.
The United States, which had only been in the war
for a year and some months (but a very long year for
those military men), saw over 100,000 of its own men
killed and over a quarter million wounded.
The deep meaning of that armistice remained in the
minds of World War I veterans a half century later
when the U.S. Congress, in one of its clueless moves,
changed the observance of the federal holiday from
November 11th to a certain Monday of October. Memorial
Day, Veterans Day and Washington's Birthday
were all moved on the calendar in order to create
three-day federal holiday weekends.
Because of the war that had followed that “War to
End All Wars,” President Eisenhower had signed a
law that broadened the meaning of “Armistice Day”
by making it “Veterans Day” in 1954. But in the
minds of the World War I generation, the memory of
that armistice still held sway.
74
Oh Holy Night
So, in the late 1960s when Congress changed the
date, I can still remember my grandmother adamantly
asserting that Armistice Day was November 11th,
NOT the fourth Monday of October. The thousands
of soldiers who, like my grandfather, had served in
France and other lands would not hear of such a
change.
So, South Dakota and Mississippi refused to follow
the federal lead. And one by one, the other states began
reverting back to the November 11th observance.
And the politicians received an earful. The World War
I generation was still alive and well; remembering
and speaking up. They again took back lost ground.
The end result was that one decade after changing
the date, Congress, in 1978, restored the observance
to November 11th.
The height and depth of the longing for an end to
that bloody war was revealed in the celebrations that
broke out on November 7, 1918. Following a reply to
the German government from President Wilson, on
that date, the Chief of Staff of the German Army, von
Hindenburg, sent a telegram to the Allied Supreme
Commander seeking a date for negotiating that armistice.
A mistaken news report declared that the
armistice had been signed. And despite all attempts
by capitols and headquarters to correct the mistake,
celebrations broke out around the world.
Newspaper “Extras” proclaimed “Peace.” Workers and
students poured into the streets with whistles and
bells and anything that could make noise. Church
bells pealed. Parades processed. Jubilation went unquenched.
And it started all over again, four days later,
on the 11th of November.

 

I was proud to serve.

--ktn4eg
USAF & TN Air National Guard (retired)