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Page 36 November 2017
Our Neighborhood Veterans
Veter ans Da y
No vemb er 11
Veterans Day is a celebrated
holiday that honors all persons
that served or are serving in the
United States Armed Forces. It dates
back to World War I and when the
Armistice with Germany ended the
hostilities on the eleventh hour of the
eleventh day of the eleventh month
of 1918. U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson expressed what he felt that
day meant to all Americans. Exactly
one year later, Wilson’s Address to
Fellow Countrymen on November
11, 1919, from the White House read
as follows:
A year ago today, our enemies
laid down their arms in accordance
with an armistice which rendered
them impotent to renew hostilities,
and gave to the world an assured
opportunity to reconstruct its
shattered order and to work out
in peace a new and juster set of
international relations. The soldiers
and people of the European Allies
had fought and endured for more
than four years to uphold the barrier
of civilization against the aggression
of armed force. We ourselves had
been in the conflict something
more than a year and a half. With
splendid forgetfulness of mere
personal concerns, we remodeled
our industries, concentrated our
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financial resources, increased our
agricultural output, and assembled
a great army, so at the last our
power was a decisive factor in
the victory. We were able to bring
the vast resources, material and
moral, of a great and free people,
to the assistance of our associates
in Europe who had suffered and
sacrificed without limit in the cause
for which we fought. Out of this
victory, there arose new possibilities
of political freedom and economic
concert. The war showed us the
strength of great nations acting
together for high purposes, and
the victory of arms foretells the
enduring conquests which can be
made in peace when nations act
justly and in furtherance of the
common interest of men. To us in
America the reflections of Armistice
Day will be filled with solemn
pride in the heroism of those who
died in the country’s service, and
with gratitude for the victory, both
because of the thing from which
it has freed us and because of the
opportunity it has given America to
show her sympathy with peace and
justice in the council of nations.
On June 4, 1926, the United
States Congress adopted a resolution
requesting then President Calvin
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Coolidge to issue an annual
proclamation calling for the
observance of November 11 with
appropriate ceremonies. Approved
May 13, 1938, by a congressional
act, November 11 would be a
day dedicated each year as a legal
holiday and, thereafter, known as
Armistice Day.
Raymond Weeks, from
Birmingham, Alabama, a World
War II Veteran, had the idea to
expand Armistice Day to celebrate
all Veterans, those alive as well as
those who died in World War I. In
1945, Weeks led a delegation to
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who
supported the idea. Weeks led the
first national celebration in 1947 in
Alabama, and led it annually until
his death in 1985. President Reagan
honored Weeks at the White House
with the Presidential Citizenship
Medal in 1982, as the driving force
for the national holiday.
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I know a lot of people get
confused trying to figure out the
difference between Veterans Day
and Memorial Day. Memorial Day is
held in May and honors those who
have died while in military service.
Veterans Day is held on the eleventh
day of the eleventh month and
celebrates both those who died while
in service and those who have served
and are still living.
Sons of AMVETS Squadron 7
Thurmont will be holding a breakfast
for Veterans and their families on
Sunday, November 12, 2017. The
breakfast is buffet-style and will
be held from 7:00-11:00 a.m. All
Veterans eat free. The breakfast is
open to the public; non-veterans
pay $5.00. November 11 falls on
a Saturday this year, so National
observance will be November 10.
God Bless the United States of
America, God Bless the American
Veteran, and God Bless You.