11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

Happy Veterans day to all those who have and currently wear the cloth of the nation.  On a personal note, Im very grateful to my Uncle Arthur, my Uncle Alex, my Grandfather, my Cousin Alex, and my Great Uncle for their service.  November 11 has a great deal of meaning to me for quite a number of reasons.  It is, of course, Veterans Day, it is a day off work, it is the birthday of General George S. Patton, and of greatest importance in my home, it is the birthday of my wife, Rebecca.  On another note, I don't think that it is coincidence that she shares her birthday with General Patton and I share my birthday with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

  On this Veterans day weekend, I think it is important that we pause for a moment and reflect upon what this day really means.  It's usually draped in flags and sales, news and movie specials, and ceremonies held to thank those who have worn the uniform.  But lets take a look beyond all of that for a moment.  When did this day start and why?  Its meaning and evolution is an amazing story in of itself and sadly, its meaning is lost on the younger generations of today.  Its origins begin with the end of a global nightmare.  On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice between Germany and the Allied powers went into effect.  The guns of the western front fell silent for the first time in four long and bloody years.  It is difficult now to truly imagine what this day was like for those men and women.  WWI was nothing short of the most horrific and bloody conflict that the world had ever seen up to that point.  Think about it in these terms:  the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has forever scarred an entire generation of Americans, however they represent only 1% of our population as a whole.  WWI nearly wiped out an entire generation of men women and children across all of Europe, and not just 1% either.  England, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Austria all lost anywhere from 1% to 4% of their population.  Think about that for a moment.....the Global War on Terror has IMPACTED, only the 1% of the population of the United States that has been engaged in it.  WWI  KILLED...Not Impacted....KILLED 1-4% of the population of Europe.

  So in the beginning, 11 November was a day of joy which evolved into a day of reverence and remembrance of the estimated 65,000,000 people who died in "The War to End All Wars".  Back then, it was simply known as "Armistice Day".  Sadly, 11 November did not settle all of the differences between the combatants, and instead planted the seeds that would later explode into WWII.  That conflict would kill another estimated 85,000,000 people world wide.  It also introduced a new and more ominous threat to mankind unlike any of the instruments of destruction first used in WWI.  The tools of that war were reserved for combatants, but the atomic bomb hung the sword of Damocles above all of our heads.

  This fact was not lost on WWII Vet Raymond Weeks of Birmingham, Alabama.  He knew that this new threat would mean that generations of Americans would need to continue to answer the call of duty to protect our nation.  Furthermore, the United States already had a specific day set aside to honor all of its war dead.  Thus, on 11 November 1945, Mr. Weeks organized the first commemoration dedicated to the recognition and celebration of all of our veterans.  The idea would continue to grow and gain support until May 1954, when President Eisenhower would sign into law, an official declaration changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

  This Veterans Day, 11 November 2014, carries with it a very special significance as it falls on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI.  That war, as noted above, was so terrible that people became convinced that when it was over, man would never take up arms again.  That has not been the case, and one simply need turn on the TV news to find proof.  We have been at war, or conflict, or whatever semantic term one chooses for 13 years now and each day brings new threats in different parts of the globe which threatens to expand the conflict further.  I heard a preacher on TV the other day who said that these new conflicts were the work of the Devil and that mankind continues to suffer from war because we fell for the trick of the Satan convincing man to think that he (Satan) doesn't exist.   I don't subscribe to this particular line of thought.  Rather, I think Satan played a much greater trick when he looked at all the evil that he had wrought and then convinced himself that he wasn't responsible for all of this.....rather it was the work of a separate evil being named Satan.  But regardless of what that preacher or I think, the only thing that stands between us and the evil that war would visit upon us is the VETERAN.....and I'm thankful for them.