The Origins of Veterans Day...

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The Origins of Veterans Day...

Postby Spock » Sat 2006 Jun 17 12:44

Originally Posted: 2004-11-11, 9:01 am

walts wrote:
The Origins of Veterans Day
http://www1.va.gov/opa/feature/celebrate/vetday.asp

In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This site, on a hillside overlooking the Potomac River and the city of Washington, D.C., became the focal point of reverence for America’s veterans.

Similar ceremonies occurred earlier in England and France, where an unknown soldier was buried in each nation’s highest place of honor (in England, Westminster Abbey; in France, the Arc de Triomphe). These memorial gestures all took place on November 11, giving universal recognition to the celebrated ending of World War I fighting at 11 a.m., November 11, 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). The day became known as “Armistice Day.”

Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a Congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar Congressional action. If the idealistic hope had been realized that World War I was “the War to end all wars,” November 11 might still be called Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday was proclaimed, war broke out in Europe . Sixteen and one-half million Americans took part. Four hundred seven thousand of them died in service, more than 292,000 in battle.

Armistice Day Changed To Honor All Veterans

The first celebration using the term Veterans Day occurred in Birmingham , Alabama , in 1947. Raymond Weeks, a World War II veteran, organized "National Veterans Day," which included a parade and other festivities, to honor all veterans. The event was held on November 11, then designated Armistice Day. Later, U.S. Representative Edward Rees of Kansas proposed a bill that would change Armistice Day to Veterans Day. In 1954, Congress passed the bill that President Eisenhower signed proclaiming November 11 as Veterans Day. Raymond Weeks received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Reagan in November 1982. Weeks' local parade and ceremonies are now an annual event celebrated nationwide.

On Memorial Day 1958, two more unidentified American war dead were brought from overseas and interred in the plaza beside the unknown soldier of World War I. One was killed in World War II, the other in the Korean War. In 1984, an unknown serviceman from the Vietnam War was placed alongside the others. The remains from Vietnam were exhumed May 14, 1998 , identified as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, and removed for burial. To honor these men, symbolic of all Americans who gave their lives in all wars, an Army honor guard, the 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard), keeps day and night vigil.

A law passed in 1968 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.

National Ceremonies Held at Arlington National Cemetery

The focal point for official, national ceremonies for Veterans Day continues to be the memorial amphitheater built around the Tomb of the Unknowns. At 11 a.m. on November 11, a combined color guard representing all military services executes “Present Arms” at the tomb. The nation’s tribute to its war dead is symbolized by the laying of a presidential wreath. The bugler plays “taps.” The rest of the ceremony takes place in the amphitheater.

Veterans Day ceremonies at Arlington and elsewhere are coordinated by the President’s Veterans Day National Committee. Chaired by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the committee represents national veterans organizations – see following.

Governors of many states and U.S. territories appoint Veterans Day chairpersons who, in cooperation with the National Committee and the Department of Defense, arrange and promote local ceremonies.

Additional Information

Additional information on the history of Veterans Day, the Veterans Day National Committee, the national ceremony, a gallery of Veterans Day posters from 1978 to the present and a colorful and informative Veterans Day Teacher’s Resource Guide can be found on the Internet at http://www.va.gov/vetsday/

Veterans Day Message from The Honorable Anthony J. Principi
Secretary of Veterans Affairs - November 11, 2004
http://www.pva.org/newsroom/PR2004/pr04092.htm

The Honorable Anthony J. Principi wrote:Have you thanked a veteran today?

We are blessed, as Americans, to live in a nation gifted with rights and freedoms envied the world over. Those rights and freedoms did not come cheaply. Have you thanked a veteran today?

We are the beneficiaries of a struggle for independence from which we emerged as a nation of many States joined together as one shining Republic. Have you thanked a veteran today?

We rise every morning empowered by a land of opportunities made rich and plentiful by a vigorous and open economic, agricultural, and industrial marketplace. We enjoy a bounty of goods and services unmatched in all the world. Have you thanked a veteran today?

We expand our knowledge of ourselves and the world around us in myriad kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools, and institutions of higher learning unparalleled in their accessibility to virtually every citizen who seeks the keys to education. Have you thanked a veteran today?

As we have just demonstrated to the world, Americans choose the men and women who represent us in our local, state, and national governments—from county commissioners to the President. And any of us who seek office, or who have an opinion about those who do, are encouraged and welcome to take to the floor of the political arena—small or great—defining the very essence of our unique, and enduring, Democracy. Have you thanked a veteran today?

We constantly refill and express our creative spirits in countless libraries, theaters, auditoriums, museums, and galleries wherein our literary, performing, and visual arts are displayed in all their variety, uncensored, and open to all. Have you thanked a veteran today?

We clash on the gridirons of ten thousand stadiums; we shoot for the hoops on countless inner-city courts and in mighty arenas; we swing for the fences of small town diamonds and the walls of major league ball parks; we run, we swim, we play, we exert ourselves individually and competitively in a nation where we are free as men and women and boys and girls to celebrate the independent spirit of athletics. Have you thanked a veteran today?

And we bow our heads, kneel on prayer rugs, and lift our voices in holy songs in mighty cathedrals, elegant churches, simple chapels, and in synagogues and mosques all across our nation, secure in the knowledge that our beliefs are sacred and our right to worship in our own way—or not to worship at all—is revered and protected. Have you thanked a veteran today?

At day’s end, we sit down to dinner, in communities large and small, and share with our neighbors the immutable constancy of our freedom to raise our families under liberty’s open skies, and to fall asleep beneath the comforting blankets of our democracy. Have you thanked a veteran today?

Today, Veterans Day, 2004, let us seize this opportunity and offer our heartfelt ‘thank you’ to America’s former soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast guardsmen. For 228 years, they protected the rich and seamless fabric of Freedom woven on the loom of conflict, washed in the blood of patriots, and preserved in times of peace through their fidelity in service to the cause of Liberty.

Forty-eight million of our fellow citizens earned our gratitude by donning our nation’s uniform. They are our ancestors laid down in their eternal resting places. They are the Greatest Generation. They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, our neighbors, and our countrymen across the nation. They are our warriors still missing in action, and they are our former Prisoners of War finally released to Liberty’s loving arms. And they are our armed forces on the front lines of Freedom half a world away.

On this Veterans Day, we thank them all.



:yy:
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http://www.dorsai.org/~walts/
http://tobaysvets.blogspot.com/
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Last edited by Spock on Sun 2006 Jun 18 9:11, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby cmptch » Sun 2006 Jun 18 3:54

The first link on the page has been moved to :
ref: http://www1.va.gov/opa/feature/celebrate/vetday.asp

The second link is OK.

The third link down is hard to track down, however, I found a copy of the message here:
ref: http://www.pva.org/newsroom/PR2004/pr04092.htm

The fifth link is O.K.
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Postby Spock » Sun 2006 Jun 18 9:14

Thanks for finding the updated links. I have now changed the originals. I'm sure walts would appreciate your assistance as well if he were here.

I really need to get in touch with walts. He hasn't been here in quite a while. After what happened to my mother, I tend to worry more about others I have come to know.
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Re: The Origins of Veterans Day...

Postby Spock » Sat 2007 Nov 10 9:05

It's almost Veterans Day again, so it's time to resurrect this from the depths of the unread forum stack. My father was a Veteran of multiple wars. I wish he were still here to celebrate yet another Veterans Day.
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