Open Thread – Veterans Day
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the Mudflats History Department! But here with today’s lesson on Veterans Day, is Mrs. D., back again!
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At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the Allies and Germany signed the Armistice at Compiegne, France, ending World War I in Western Europe. Twenty million died. In the U.K. it is known as Remembrance Day. In the U.S. it was known as Armistice Day until the end of the Korean War.
The poppy has become the symbol of Veterans’ Day since the poem “In Flanders Field” by Canadian Military Physician; John McCrae was published in 1915. It was dedicated to his friend and former student Lt. Alexis Helmer who was killed in battle.
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.
It was a Professor at the University of Georgia, Moina Michael, who popularized wearing the red poppy when she published a response to McCrea’s poem. “We Shall Keep the Faith” was published in November, 1918.
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.
Finding these poems pro-war, there are those who choose instead to wear white poppies. I leave that debate for another day.
This past summer I had the honor of visiting the American Cemetery in Normandy. I wondered if the parking lot would be filled with tourist buses of Americans paying homage to their countrymen. I was pleasantly surprised to see lots filled with French cars and families bringing their children to see this historic site. It seems when it comes to the Normandy Invasion, the French are truly reverent.
At the site of history’s largest amphibious assault, I was prepared to be awed; I was not prepared to be left speechless and weeping.
You enter the complex by going into an underground museum. What started my weeping jag was this quote from Gen. Mark Clark:
If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not
conquest it could be found in these cemeteries. Here was our
only conquest: All we asked…was enough soil in which to
bury our gallant dead.
Omaha Beach is hauntingly beautiful. It is unimaginably wide and the bluffs are overgrown and quite steep. The serenity belies the horrors of 66 years ago.
The cemetery site is 172.5 acres and was ceded to the United States as American soil. It is, however, maintained by the French. I did not see one blade of grass out of place.
The American Cemetery has 9, 387 headstones. Three are Medal of Honor recipients and there are 38 sets of brothers. On the eastern side is the Memorial with a 22’ statue entitled “The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.” The statue overlooks a reflecting pond and the chapel midway through the cemetery. Around the Memorial is written:
This embattled shore, portal of freedom, is forever hallowed by the
ideals, the valor and the sacrifices of our fellow countrymen.
The headstones speak for themselves.
The Garden of the Missing lists 1,557 names of those who were never recovered.
We also visited The Canadian Cemetery overlooking Juno Beach. This was the site where Charles DeGaulle reentered France. Juno Beach was quite imposing. The Canadian Cemetery, however had a softer feel. The headstones were personalized with messages and huge maple trees graced the grounds. There are 2,049 headstones including four British soldiers and one French Resistance soldier.
We are so blessed to have so many freedoms. Don’t take them for granted, they came at a very heavy price.
Your homework for today is to wear a poppy (red or white) and thank a vet for his/her service.
I spoke to a group of Alaska 8th graders the morning of Veteran’s day on the meaning of the flag, why we make a pledge to it, what Veteran’s day means, and then talked briefly about my days in the USCG. If any of you vets out there are interested in this kind of thing, the kids loved it. They were polite, asked relevant questions, and were very curious about stories, what it was really like to serve, did we still keep in touch with friends from back then, would we do it again, etc. I think for some of them, it was a way of connecting with loved ones that are currently deployed. Made my Veteran’s day and I hope it was good for the kids too.
There is a hilarious satire of tea party candidates on 30 Rock on right now!!
While deployed in Germany, I visited a rather large memorial cemetery where many Americans from WWII had been buried. I was stunned by the sheer numbers of American soldiers buried in Germany where they had fallen during the long campaigns. After our group finished walking through the memorials for Americans, we drove just a little ways further and found a memorial cemetery for German soldiers who had also fallen in WWII. The bodies had been placed two to a headstone, and the headstone had two faces, so it actually held the names and bodies of four soldiers. The soldiers had been buried one atop the other, two to each side of the headstone. Many of the headstones read only that a soldier lay there in the grave. No name. Nearly twice the number of Germans rested in that cemetery. Later that same day, I visited a little museum on the Rhine river, the Museum Mechanical. It held thousands of examples of the extraordinary mechanical toys and music boxes that once were made in Germany. It was there that I learned about the bombing of the city of Dresden near the end of the war. Forty thousand civilians died as incendiary bombs rained down upon them. Finally, after a few more days I visited Dachau prison, and so saw how war touches not just the soldier but the civilian, the innocent and the evil. I came full circle in the history of war. Not long after that, I was no longer observing history, but becoming part of it when NATO launched a brutal assault during what some like to refer to as the Kosovo war. It’s crazy who gets to live and who dies by whose hand and for what reasons. I don’t care for the word vet. Veteran implies knowledge and experience. I just feel like I got swept up in a surge of human history, and not the good kind with a happy ending. This year though I can accept it a little better than the previous year. I have to because I know a lot of vets I care deeply about, and if I can’t except it for myself, how can I say thank you to them. Do we ever really understand our part? I wish we could find a better way. During my deployment to Germany I also saw how extraordinary we human beings can be when we work at it. Thanks veterans and friends.
What a great way to use the unconditional love of a dog to help support our military and their families!
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is working on a project with the base in Fairbanks to use dog mushing as therapy for the veterans and families of our present wars. They started out thinking that it would be good for soldiers returning with PTSD but then found that it is also helpful for those left at home when soldiers are deployed. I think that I shall take today to make a suggestion to our local mushing club to maybe get involved with something like this here. Finally, a way to help “support our troops” and maybe make a difference in someone else’s life.
(((((((((((LoveMD))))))))
If learning to care and run with sled dogs doesn’t take one’s mind off of the worry and stress of returning or being left behind – nothing will! That’s a fabulous idea. When I think back on my time of training with my neighbor, I realize that it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever had the opportunity to do. It’s hard work, it’s rewarding, it’s quite an education, and most of all – it’s scary as hell in the best possible way! Adrenaline, here we come. Smiles bigger than your face can hold, here we come.
Kudos to all who have served their country and the planet, however they may have chosen to serve.
Kudos and love to my late father, a WWII veteran, and my young brother, a later veteran.
Hugs and love to all who have lost someone they loved dearly.
My father served in the army during WWII in Italy and North Africa. He never talked about it. His brother was killed in the Battle of the Bulge and is buried somewhere in Europe. My sister died from illness related to her service in the Navy. My brother-in-law and former fiancee were also in the Navy. I salute all of them, and all members of the military, for their service.
On Tuesday night, the community choir I belong to performed a Veterans Day concert in my town. It was attended by well over 1,00 people and the veterans in the audience were honored with patriotic music including an Armed Forces medley. As each song was introduced, the flags of that military branch were brought out on stage. The final song in the medley was the National Anthem, and the American Flag joined the line of flags across the stage. It was extremely moving and difficult to sing without choking up with pride and gratitude.
Earlier in the evening, a flag that had flown at the US Capitol was given to the oldest veteran in the audience. All the veterans were asked to stand up and, as each age was announced, the people younger than that sat down. The final veteran standing was a Navy Wave who was 100 years old and she was presented with the flag by our state Senator. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house!
I wish a safe and blessed Veterans Day to all our veterans, current members of the military and the families of those who have served and those who are serving. We thank you.
Thank you for this post and an opportunity to salute all veterans and families. Please honor my wife’s uncle, Edward Novack, casualty date 11 Sept 1944, buried at the Brittany American Cemetery, St James, France. He was just an orphan kid from Montana but proved to be just as worthy as the rest.
I want to honor my dear friends I lost in the Vietnam War serving with U.S. Army Special Forces, MACVSOG. Richard Alan Thomas, KIA 9 Jan 1970, Larry Paul Bartlett, KIA 9 Jan 1970, David Arthur Davidson, MIA 5 May 1970. We miss you all and Peace be with the families and friends.
We are getting to be old men but they are still young men in my mind.
To all the servicemen from WWII 242nd Rainbow Division. My love and prayers.
company I suffered 300% casualties, walked across France and into Germany, helped liberate Dachau. You gave so much, and your lives and the lives of your families were forever changed.
My dad can’t be in his Veteran’s Day parade this year. I know he’s sad not to be able to honor those he fought with by being there, but he does so in his heart.
I visited the American Cemetary in Normany in 1990. I wrote this on the back of a Michelin roadmap of Normandy. My image was of all those white crosses and stars of David seemingly floating over the green grass:
“Seeds sown and scattered,
A Yield never harvested,
Snow in summer.”
I hate war. I do not hate those who have to fight them. I am deeply appreciative of the sacrifices of those who serve/have served and their families who wait in fear at home. I cry for those who are lost and for those who return home forever changed by the experience (be it physically or psychically). I am aware that we humans are still barbaric in the way that we deal with differences and that there are some evils out there worth fighting against. I wish that the human race could find a better way.
AKM: Can we have another open thread to discuss other things so that we do not get accused of trampling on the somewhat sacredness of this one? Thanks.
on this day we honor the honorable.
on this day we honor the sacrifices made
on this day we remember bravery in the midst of horror
on this day we your descendants prove ourselves worthy
of our begetting by seeking peace with our enemies
and love for one another
on this day we say thank you.
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those pictures had me boo hooing
Mrs. D, thanks for the history lesson and the stunning photos. I didn’t know any of that information about the cemeteries. I’ve heard the poem Flanders Fields for years – my mother used to always quote some of it around Veteran’s Day, which she usually did call Armistice Day. But I’d never heard the response as the reason we started wearing red poppies.
My heartfelt thanks to all veterans and those who are currently serving in the military. And I will go to one of the grocery stores later in hopes of finding a veteran with poppies so I can wear it today.
“The way I see it, the whole wide world has gone crazy, so baby why don’t we just dance?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTxo1CkMwBI&feature=player_embedded#!
To my stepdaughter Jaquie, an Army medic who just returned home from Iraq. I’ve known you for 23 of your 27 years and now you make me proud.
To my Grandpa John, a SeaBea (Navy Construction Battalion) WWII, who served California and the Aleutian Islands. You taught me that I’m loved.
Well, now I’m going to make some phone calls and thank the rest of my friends who served.
We all have the power within us to improve someone’s day. These guys found a charming way and they just crack me up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWBbXA58PKI&feature=player_embedded
To Army Sgt Ed Spence, who died in France, the fourth day after our troops went ashore.
He was from New York state, had been stationed near my mother’s home in Washington. He sent her a dozen roses on her 16th birthday and wrote the most wonderful letters to her, festooned with cartoons and drawings – he was so talented!
Mom knew he was killed in France but she always assumed he had been caught with a woman by a jealous husband because her last letter to him came back that he was deceased, but it was not stamped “KIA,” killed in action.
Last year an Army friend of our family was able to research his service record and found out that he had been KIA and buried in the town where he died, in France.
My mother was finally able to know. I read his letters again and thought he loved her, so I am glad to know he didn’t die ‘en flagrante.’
Sgt Spence’s archive at the Army was small, since he died so young, but his letters to his sweetheart are now included in history, in case any of his family looks for him.
In the years before WWI, my great uncles emigrated from Ireland to various countries, and served in that war for their respective new countries- Canada, the U.S., and New Zealand. The one who had wandered the farthest was the one who did not survive the war. He was lost in one of the horrific and pointless battles at Flanders fields: Poperinge/ 3rd Ypres. Our generation of family knows very little about him, except that he left a girlfriend in New Zealand but never had the chance to marry and start a family there. We have her picture, and first name, and that is all.
The family of Sgt Spence may, like us, have such a picture and wonder who his sweetheart was and what she meant to the soldier who never came back. Thank you for including those letters where his family may find them, perhaps many years from now. It will mean something to them.
I remember a poem written by an Alaska Native who served in the Air Force during the Viet Nam War He was part of a parachute team….I cannot recite the entire poem but in it he wrote, ” We never jump alone.” He mentioned who was in their hearts during those times…their parents, their wives or sweethearts, their children, friends, relatives and their villages. He was killed in action shortly afterwards.
My father served in the Eskimo Scout Battalion as did my cousins. My late husband served. My brother did as well. All served honorably.
To the Mothers of those who served, Thank You. To the Fathers, You Taught Them Well. To the Women Who Still Weep, You Are Not Alone.
Where have all the flowers gone?
long time passing…
@ Zyxomma
“I used to hold poetry workshops at my local VA hospital.”
I’ve never known anyone who volunteered at a VA hospital. I love knowing that you did – and poetry, no less!
I’m going to call my very elderly Dad today and thank him for his Navy service. I don’t even have to yell now because I installed a phone amplifier when I was just down visiting.
I was invited to cry on one of the commuter flights on my trip when the airline stewards announced we had a service man on board, and could we show our appreciation to him? We all clapped. We were asked to remain seated while he gathered his things and left the plane, which we did, to more clapping. He was a bit shy about it, but he beamed as he deplaned and that just made my day.
One of the best things I ever witnessed coming back into Alaska a few years ago was when a number of current servicemen boarded the plane.
For the number of servicemen who entered, the same number of first class passengers had the flight crew come and ask each military person if they would move to the first class section and the other passenger who gave up thier seat would move into thier’s.
The entire plane cheered when they found out what was happening, as it took a bit to figure it out.
It was a small thing but meant a lot to the rest of the plane also.
The eldest child of two Korean War vets, USAF
Thank you, Mrs. D, and thanks for all who served. I used to hold poetry workshops at my local VA hospital. I write my representatives to make sure veterans get the benefits they earned.
I’m grateful that I’m not a member of a military family. I hate war, and want to see a world without it. I wish everyone health and peace.
In honor of those who have and are currently serving with dignity, pride and honor and most of all to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Our thanks can never be said too often or loudly enough. We salute you!!
Some Gave All!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nJTqpKlZ9U
May we remember and honor the sacrifice of those who served and still serve by vowing to not request or require that sacrifice except when truly necessary.
Thank you for this beautiful post and thank you to those, whose family members made the greatest sacrifice there is.
Yesterday was the anniversary of my sons death. He was only 5 days old. I cannot imagine the grief of loving a child for 18 plus years and then losing them.
Why are the republicans talking about more war?
I am so sorry for your loss Diane.
In loving memory of Staff Sgt Jacob McMillan, KIA Iraq, December 20, 2006. Jacob, we will never forget you and we will never be the same without you.
Thank you, fishingmama, bless you and your family.
KSSunflower and others – thanks for remembering and honoring our vets! We were an Army family for over 20 years – survived the Viet Nam years and went on to enjoy many more years of traveling the world and experiencing many other cultures. Today is also our anniversary so it is a doubly special day.
On another topic – I’m worried about Fawnskin. Her last posting mentioned that she was not feeling well. At that time, her mailbox was full when I attempted to PM her, and it has remained full so messages don’t go. Her absence has been quite noticeable. If anyone has her regular email address, could you contact her and see if she is okay, then report back to us?
Thanks and a very happy Veteran’s Day to all.
Happy anniversary, GG2C. Love, health, and peace to you and yours.
I will, GreatGranny 2C. I had an email 5 days ago, and she mentioned what an honor it was to be with you and your hubby at the search for Sanity. A whole paragraph devoted to how much she admired & enjoyed you two!
I just PM’d you with contact info.
Thank you for posting this. One of my nephews deploys to Iraq today. I am filled with so many conflicting emotions–pride, fear, worry….
Thank you to all veterans, young and old.
[[Quick correction to article: The Armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiegne, France, went into effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, ending World War I in Western Europe — the signing was not at 11am on 11 November; the mechanism for the cessation of hostilities (the signing) had taken place 6 hours earlier, at 5am.]]
For more reasons than I can possibly count, I am incredibly privileged to share my life with a veteran. To our veterans across our nation and around the world: Thank you. beth.
–and to all Marines; happy belated birthday! b.
I watched a PBS special not long ago about all the American cemeteries across the world that are filled with our war dead. Incredibly sad.
A hearty thank you to my uncles, who proudly all served this great country. And to my nephew who is currently serving valiantly and with pride.
To my DH Happy and all veterans, to all who serve, and to all who made the ultimate sacrifice…many thanks. We honor you.
Deep and sincere thanks to every man or woman who has served or is serving our country through the military so our country could be safer.
The military life can be a noble one, but it generally under-appreciated and under-compensated for those who serve and those who wait. I was once a military wife and understand both the pride and the fear involved. While it may not be much as I wish I could give, please accept my gratitude for what you and your families endure for the sake of everyone.
Well said. While Mr.CO did not serve, both of our fathers and grandfathers did, and my uncle is buried in Holland, killed at the end of WWII. Oldest daughter married a wonderful AF man-
May we and our government remember war comes at a heavy price, and wage it as a last resort. We civilians should be making a financial sacrifice, not just those who bear arms.
And, sit down and watch “The Best Years of our Lives”.
Kimosabe, very good choice. Or Sargeant York. This is heavy. Heavy.
Excellent movie choice for today.
i will be going to our remembrance day parade and my husband will be visiting my sons grave. Been wearing my poppy since Nov.1th
Lest We Forget
Bless you Twain, and deep sorrow for your sacrifice.
Yes, Twain, bless you. Bless you.
I am so sorry for your loss twain.