They Did Their Share
On Veteran’s Day we honor
Soldiers who protect our nation.
For their service as our warriors,
They deserve our admiration.
Some of them were drafted;
Some were volunteers;
For some it was just yesterday;
For some it’s been many years;
Let every veteran be honored;
What they did, we can’t repay.
We owe so much to them,
Who kept us safe from terror,
So when we see a uniform,
Let’s say “thank you” to every wearer.
By Joanna Fuchs
Veterans Day is an official United States federal holiday that is observed on November 11 each year. It honors all military people, also known as veterans, who have served in U.S. armed services.
Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, are celebrated in other parts of the world, and like Veterans Day mark the anniversary of the end of World War I which formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
Veterans Day is not to be confused with Armistice Day, Remembrance Day or Memorial Day (celebrated in the month of May in the U.S.) which honor those who have died in conflicts of war.
World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the “Father of Veterans Day.”
Armistice Day is commemorated to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France. The armistice also known as the Armistice of Compiègne after the location it was signed – was the agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. The date, November 11, was declared a national holiday in many allied nations, to commemorate those members of the armed forces who were killed.
Most countries changed the name Armistice Day to Remembrance Day, after world War II, to honor veterans who have died in action, in that and all subsequent conflicts of war.
Armistice Day remains the name of the holiday in France, Belgium and new Zealand; and it has been a statutory holiday in Serbia since 2012. The United States chose All Veterans Day which was later shortened to Veterans Day.
Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a memorial day observed in commonwealth countries is observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918.
The red remembrance poppy has used since 1920 to commemorate soldiers who have died in war and has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem “In Flanders Fields”.
These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red color an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.
It is especially prominent in the UK. In the weeks leading up to Remembrance Sunday, they are distributed by The Royal British Legion in return for donations to their “Poppy Appeal”, which supports all current and former British military personnel.
Flanders is one of the regions located in the north-western part of present-day Belgium and adjacent parts of France and the Netherlands. Today Flanders normally refers to the Dutch speaking northern portion of Belgium.
“In Flanders Fields” is a war poem, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier. It is one of the most popular and most quoted poems from World War I.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
By John McCrae
Image: A Canadian war bonds poster.
In 1918, American YWCA worker Moina Michael, inspired by the poem, published a poem of her own called “We Shall Keep the Faith”. In tribute to McCrae’s poem, she vowed to always wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in the war.
We Shall Keep the Faith
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
In Flanders Fields we fought
By Moina Michael
The practice of decorating the graves of soldiers, originated in the years immediately following the American Civil War.
Field of Valor in Covina, CA
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Photo Gallery of Veterans Day Posters from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other Veterans Day images.
Take a moment and remember to give special thanks to all the people who have served and fought to keep the freedoms we have in the United States of America and around the globe today. Peace!
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