By Tom Seegmueller
On Nov. 11, we will celebrate the sacrifice and contributions of the men and women who have served in our nation’s armed forces. In many ways Veterans Day has become one of our most confusing national holidays. During its history its meaning, spelling, method and date of celebration have changed over time.
This holiday originated as a way to commemorate the ending of World War I. Between 1914 to 1918 more than 16 million combatants and civilians died and another 21 million were injured. For the first time, the majority of casualties in a war were a result of combat instead of disease due to advances in military and medical technology. This resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of wounded veterans surviving combat and returning home. Many believed that the results of this war were so horrendous that it was dubbed the “Great War” or the “War to End All Wars”. Hostilities formally ended with the signing of a truce or “Armistice” at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
In Europe the armistice would be celebrated as “Remembrance Day” or “Poppy Day”. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the celebration of an Armistice Day for Nov. 11, 1919. “”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 councils of the nations …” Seven years later Congress passed a concurrent resolution requesting the President Calvin Coolidge issue another proclamation making the 11th day of each November as, “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day”.
On the second anniversary of the armistice the United Kingdom and France held ceremonies honoring their unknown dead from the war. President Wilson suggests that the Sunday nearest to Nov. 11 be recognized as Armistice Day Sunday with services focusing on world peace. In 1921 Congress passed legislation approving the establishment of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Nov. 11 was the date chosen for the ceremony. The date was declared to be a Federal Holiday to honor all those who participated in the war not just those who lost their lives fighting in it.
During the 1920s and 1930s, most states establish Nov. 11 as a legal holiday and a annual proclamation was issued by the president. On May 13, 1938 Congress passed legislation making Nov. 11 a legal federal holiday, Armistice Day. However, the action was highly significant and meaningless as the United States had no ability to impose a national holiday at the time because the states retained the right to designate their own holidays. However, in reality most states implemented and recognized the holiday.
Between 1941 and 1953 an additional 21,832,560 Americans will serve their country during World War II and the Korean War. As a result in 1953 Alfred King an Emporia, Kansas, shoe store owner had the idea to expand the holiday into a celebration of the service of all veterans, not just those who had served in WWI. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the crusade after determining that 90 percent of Emporia merchants were in favor of closing their doors on Nov. 11 to honor the U. S. veterans of all wars. The traditional method of celebration had previously been the suspension of business for a two minute period beginning at 11 a.m. with the day also marked by celebratory parades and speeches. On June 1, 1954 President Eisenhower signed legislation changing the name of the legal holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. Although many advertisements and calendars refer to the date as Veteran’s Day or Veterans’ Day the Federal Government has specified that Veterans Day is the official spelling.
In 1968 further confusion is added to the celebration when Congress passes the Monday Holiday Law establishing the fourth Monday in October as the new date for the observance of Veterans Day. The law is slated to take effect in 1971. Initially all states except Mississippi and South Dakota comply. However, by 1975, 46 states including Georgia have either failed to follow the federal policy or changed their State’s observance back to Nov. 11. In 1975, legislation passes returning the observation of Veterans Day to Nov. 11. The law took effect in 1978.
Ironically, at the same time public support of the historic and patriotic significance of the traditional date came, a trend against business closure on the holiday was growing as well. This paradox may be a result of the nation’s growing concern over the Vietnam War which would add more than 7 million more veterans to the U.S. military’s service roosters. Once again as in previous wars medical advances allowed an even greater percentage of wounded soldiers to survive their combat wounds and return home. Unfortunately the veterans that returned from this war would receive few if any of the accolades and empathy extended to their predecessors from our nation’s other wars and conflicts. In an effort to make amends for this omission a concentrated effort has been made to insure that the same fate did not await the more than 3 million veterans returning to the United States following their service In the Gulf War and the Global War on Terror a number which continues to grow daily.
However, true appreciation of their service and that of those who have served before them goes far beyond a homecoming and national day of recognition no matter how elaborate the celebration. It has been estimated that more than 23.7 million veterans are living in the country today. More than 6 million have some form of disability and more than half of this number (3.5 million) are over the age of 65. The number of military veterans needing assisted living in the United States will most certainly grow in the coming years, as will the need for appropriate assisted living and senior care options. Additionally, the need for assisted living for veterans under the age of 65 is growing due to injuries or the need for incidental medical care as the percentage of veterans surviving their combat wounds increases.
Sadly history highlights that the efforts to finance a war are all too frequently much greater than efforts to finance the care and needs of those who fought that war as reflected in the following poem by Rudyard Kipling. It echoes the plight of Great Britain’s most acclaimed veterans 40 years after their famous charge at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.
The Last of the Light Brigade
There were thirty million English who talked of England’s might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.
They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!
They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, “Let us go to the man who writes
The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites.”
They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant’s order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.
They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.
The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and “Beggin’ your pardon,” he said,
“You wrote o’ the Light Brigade, sir. Here’s all that isn’t dead.
An’ it’s all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin’ the mouth of hell;
For we’re all of us nigh to the workhouse, an’ we thought we’d call an’ tell.
“No, thank you, we don’t want food, sir; but couldn’t you take an’ write
A sort of ‘to be continued’ and ‘see next page’ o’ the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an’ couldn’t you tell ‘em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now.”
The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with “the scorn of scorn.”
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.
O thirty million English that babble of England’s might,
Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;
Our children’s children are lisping to “honour the charge they made – ”
And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!
