On Veteran's Day I believe this appropriate

Mark:

In the US Veteran's Day is often confused with Memrial Day. Both have their own significance.

Vet's Day, once known as Armistice day to commemorate the cessation of hostilities in WWI, became Veteran's Day under direction of President Eisenhower in 1954 in recognition that "The war to end all wars" really didn't. Almost thirty year to the day later WWII began in Europe.

It honors veterans living and deceased who have served in the five branches of the US military and the sacrifices they made and are making to establish and maintain our freedoms. Personally I'm humbled by the very thought.

Where would be today without them?

SD
USAR vet (1960-66)

I know.

I was commenting on your original post.

Mark

(United States Navy)

Happy Veterans Day to all of our veterans, past and present and those of you who are still serving. Thank you for serving our country and protecting our freedoms.

and a personal thanks to Mark and Dave.

 

To far too many Veteran's Day is just another paid holiday. Since the US now has a volunteer military (rather than an active draft) it's common belief that serving in the miltary is like a job for which one is paid so no "honors" are due and that's reward enough.

Im reminded of General Douglas MacArthur's "Duty, Honor, Country" Speech at West Point. That motivated an and awfully lot of those who served in the past as it does today.

SD

On 11.11.1918, the armistice was signed in the forest near Compiègne in the railcar of maréchal Ferdinand Foch, commander of the allied forces since 1917. After the war, a building was erected for the railcar and became a museum. The tracks were preserved and a big statue of Foch as well as a remembrance stone could be found.



Foch is second from right with briefcase. Second from left stands général Maxime Weygand, illegitimate son of king Leopold II of Belgium. Weygand, as upper commander of the French forces in 1940, and  minister of the war government of maréchal Pétain, was the first to be favourable for the armistice, better called surrender, of the French forces to the Germans. In order to humiliate France, Hitler chose to have the French surrender signed in the same railcar.



22 June 1940. Far left seated, Göring and Hitler can be seen, then Keitel reading conditions, sitting in the middle is Rudolf Hess, second from right sits Weygand. Before signing, the museum wall was broken and the railcar pulled out. After the surrender, it was the transported to Berlin, where it was set on fire in 1945. The building, remembrance stone and tracks were all demolished. Only the statue of Foch remained as a sign of military respect. The railcar that can be visited nowadays in the museum at Compiègne is a replica.

Lieven

http://news.msn.com/us/wwii-doolittle-raiders-make-final-toast-in-ohio?ocid=ansnews11

The subject rail car burned at the end of WWII in 1945 has far more historical significance than stated here but that's drifting from my OP on Veteran's Day.

SD

.

OVERLORD wrote:



22 June 1940. Far left seated, Göring and Hitler can be seen, then Keitel reading conditions, sitting in the middle is Rudolf Hess, second from right sits Weygand.

Correction: Second from right is général Charles Huntziger, not Weygand

Great pictures, even if it was a solemn occasion.

I have always felt strange about Veterans day since I joined the service.  Mostly because I don't feel like a veteran. When I was younger I always envisioned a veteran to be someone who actually fought for a country and had actually been in battle. I know now a veteran is someone who has served period, but for whatever reason I still can't shake that feeling.

I have been active duty USAF since 1994 and I have taken part in a few campaigns that allow me to be a VFW member, but I have never seen actual combat. My grandfather is '92 years old and his health is failing. He has seen combat and fought his way through Europe to include Normandy. I don't feel like I am on the same playing field as him.

Just my thoughts...

Hats off to all veterans everywhere and I thank so much for your courage and dedication. May God bless all of you.

On a parting note I did enjoy a free dinner at Golden Corral tonight

Edit: I want to revise my statement as I don't want folks thinking that I go around judging those who have not seen any combat. What I was saying applies to ME ONLY and not others who have served.

I too alway feel a little weird about veterans day, always thinking of war veterans.

I didn't really do anything, didn't even do any ship duty, let alone go overseas...however I did have a lot of fun & drank a lot of cheap beer.

I am proud of the fact that i spent time serving my country, but the guys that got shot at, are on a totally higher level!

Go Navy!

Today at 11:11 AM the sun illuminated the Great Seal.
Anthem, Arizona

Remember that being a vetran does NOT equate to combat service, far from it. I served state-side as a weapons instructor training troops for duty in Vietnam.

Then there are those who surve in support capacities: military band members, clerks, supply positions etc. and there are far more ALL of whom are legitimately called VETERANS.

So why quibble over the definition of a veteran? There are far more of us out there than in commonly presumed, After all Veteran's Day is a day of rememberance and reflection.

Glory in that and be proud of your service,

SD

Wasn't quibbling, just stating what I felt about myself.

Ron:

I must admit a sincre respect and appreciation for combat veterans. But to consider them the only "true veterans" is misnomer. Stand proud of your service even if has been state-side in non-combat capacities.

I'd like to think the term "veteran" is an honorific well-deserved by those who did their duty honorably regadless of locaion and time..

SD

I almost met General Doolittle at the 8th Air Force Reunion in 1993, unfortunately he passed away a few weeks prior. I did have the honor to meet a few of the Doolittle Raiders on that trip.

SuperDave wrote:Ron:

I must admit a sincre respect and appreciation for combat veterans.  But to consider them the only "true veterans" is misnomer.  Stand proud of your service even if has been state-side in non-combat capacities.

I'd like to think the term "veteran" is an honorific well-deserved by those who did their duty honorably regadless of locaion and time..

SD

Hey Dave,

Again, I consider myself not a true vetran. I have spent time in Qatar, Bosnia and Korea. I am not labeling anyone except myself.

Ron

That's your choice to make Ron.

Say, have you ever read General Douglass MacArthur's "Farewell Address" delivered to the cadets at USMA in 1962?

It's quite inspirational (to me anyway) and a standard by which I've lived my years.

"Duty, Honor and Country" resonates with me still.

SD

No I have not. I will be sure to look it up though.

Ron

Ron:

I'd appreciate your comments after you've read the MacArthur speech.

Mac Arhur was an "old school" warrior made obsolete when President Harry Truman removed him from command in Korea where he wished to chase the Chinese Red Army back into China.  Truman was asserting his role as Commander in Chief of the US Military and reaffirming the concept of civilian control which remains still today.

William Manchester's "The American Caesar" is an excellent read on MacArthur's life start to finish.  I recommend it highly.   

SD

I'll side with Ron...

here's the speech:

General Westmoreland, General Groves, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps. As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" and when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place, have you ever been there before?"

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this, coming from a profession I have served so long and a people I have loved so well. It fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily for a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code - the code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the meaning of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility which will be with me always.

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.

They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness; the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

They give you a temperate will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory?

Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man at arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefields many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the world's noblest figures; not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless.

His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast.

But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements.

In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people.

From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs of the glee club, in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads; to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they saw the way and the light.

And twenty years after, on the other side of the globe, against the filth of dirty foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts, those boiling suns of the relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms, the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails, the bitterness of long separation of those they loved and cherished, the deadly pestilence of tropic disease, the horror of stricken areas of war.

Their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory - always victory, always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men, reverently following your password of Duty, Honor, Country.

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong. The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training - sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him. However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country, is the noblest development of mankind.

You now face a new world, a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres and missiles marked the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind - the chapter of the space age. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a greater, a more abrupt or staggering evolution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier. We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; of purifying sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundred of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.

And through all this welter of change and development your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable. It is to win our wars. Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purpose, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishments; but you are the ones who are trained to fight.

Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the Nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be Duty, Honor, Country.

Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war guardians, as its lifeguards from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiators in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.

Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government. Whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as firm and complete as they should be.

These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.

You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the Nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds.

The long gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished - tone and tints. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen then, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll.

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps.

I bid you farewell.

Mark:

Thank you so much for posting MacArthur's speech.  Though dated (1962) it is a reminder to each of us of a time when "Duty, Honor and Couutry" of when high ambitions were prodominate in America.

Of course MacArthur had his detractors even during his lifetime.  "Doug Out Doug" for his retreat from Corregidor (Philippines) but with the immortal words "I shall return." and return he did to Command the Philippines to eliminate the Japanese occupiers.

Following the cessaion of WWII MacArtur remaind as Commander of American occupation forces with a geniune commitment to assist the Philippines in recovering from the ravages of war.  Today MacArthur is revered there for his commitment and accomplishments.

SuperDave