This morning I had the honor of representing our church (and all of Kent's churches, now that I think about it) at this year's Veteran's Day ceremony here in town. Now, in most towns, Veteran's Day is kind of Memorial Day's homely little sister, but not here in Kent! Here we not only have a ceremony, but we have a swell Veteran's Day luncheon put on by our friends at St. Andrew's, who are people who know how to do that sort of thing.
Today, Veteran's Day is one of three military-themed civic holidays, and is dedicated (as I'm sure you know) to honor those men and women who have served in our nation's armed forces. The other two are, of course, Memorial Day, which honors those who died in military service, and Armed Forces Day, which honors those who are currently serving. From a historical perspective, though, Veteran's Day has had (sort of like the Grateful Dead) a long, strange trip to becoming the day it is today.
And that's because originally, Veteran's Day was--just like Memorial Day--dedicated to remembering those who had died in their country's service. That's because Veteran's Day wasn't originally Veteran's Day at all, but rather Armistice Day, a day dedicated to commemorating the day "the guns fell silent" at the end of the First World War. Looking back from our contemporary view, the First World War pales in significance compared to the carnage of World War II and the long tensions of the Cold War, but for those who lived through it, World War I was a tragedy of simply unimaginable dimensions. There had never been a conflict even remotely so destructive, or one that claimed so may lives, and so it's Armistice, which went into effect "on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month," or November 11, 1918, was VERY big deal, and the custom soon developed of remembering all of those who lost their lives in the conflict. As Armistice Day, the day was observed not only in the United States, but also in almost every nation that had taken part in the war. In this country, Armistice Day became a federal holiday in 1938.
Following World War II, however, the focus of the day was expanded to include the remembrance of all of those people who died in a given nations' military service, and as Remembrance Day, it is still observed in most nations that are part of the Commonwealth of Nations, since those nations, as former parts of the British Empire, had been a part of both wars.
But here at home, making Armistice Day an occasion to remember all of those who had died in the country's service ran smack into Memorial Day, which was already well established not only as the day dedicated to remembering those people, but was also as the unofficial beginning of Summer, and was thus the much better know day among those who hadn't served in the Great War. That being the case, in the post-WWII era veterans groups called for a new holiday, Veteran's Day, to honor those men and women who were currently serving in the armed forces. And since that call began at the outset of the Cold War, there were a lot of people in the service, and the idea received the endorsement of former Supreme Allied Commander (and soon to be President) Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In fact, it was (by now) President Eisenhower, who, in 1954, signed the legislation eliminating Armistice Day and replacing it with Veteran's Day, establishing the holiday that we know today--and that we celebrate appropriately here in Kent.
So, if you know a veteran, why not take a moment to thank him or her for their service, for their willingness to leave home and family, and sometimes face mortal danger, for the benefit of us all. I know I'll be doing that tomorrow, when I give Dear Old Dad and call and thank him for just that.
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