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November 11, 2005
Veterans Day at the Chattanooga National Cemetery
A 21-gun salute by the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 203 Honor Guard made my day. I was attending the Veterans Day 2005 ceremony today, Nov. 11, at our Chattanooga National Cemetery, and in the background the UTC Band playing the "National Anthem," "Amazing Grace," and "Echoing Taps." Commander Patty Parks delivered the keynote address with an eloquent appeal to patriotism. All in all, it was a great honor to be among living veterans of war, saluting to all who have served as well as all who now serve. For I have my own (personal) veterans of war experiences shared with me in words from family members and in wounds suffered by family members.
Both my father and my father-in-law (now deceased) were vets. My father during the Cuban Missile Crisis and my father-in-law during WWII. Their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers served as well, going back to the Civil War. More recently, many of my uncles and cousins have served. And then there was my brother-in-law, who served in Vietnam, coming home a fully disabled man. He died eleven years ago because of war-related complications.
So on this day, Nov. 11 at 11 a.m., I joined all Americans in stopping their business, and spending time to honor our veterans fallen and alive, wounded and embattled. We could do more for them, but we don't, even though the cause of peace is supposed to be promoted by remembering the devastation of war.
Veterans Day was meant to mark the end of all wars, as President Woodrow Wilson so optimistically put it. for it was he who first commemorated the remembrance of Armistice Day just after World War I. In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed that 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.
However, it was not until June 4, 1926, that the U.S. Congress recognized the end of World War I with the passing of a resolution recognizing the purpose of Veterans Day, namely to promote the end of conflict and peace among nations~not the continuation of conflict and war among nations.
It was not until May 13, 1938, that Veterans Day was signed into law as an Act making Nov. 11 a legal holiday dedicated to world peace and national patriotism.
| By wjbailes | 08:02 PM
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