Veteran's Day 2024

Another Armistice Day...

My grandson turned 24 yesterday, voted in his second national election last week (I think). Good for you, Van.

And you're welcome.

That’s from the generations of men and women who fought for your freedoms, young man. Many of them died for it; many more suffered for their service, most without complaint.

When we take up the soldier, we do not set aside the citizen.

George Washington

Washington had no overt women in his ranks, though at least a score served in his armies disguised as men. I served in the Army for 27 years, much of it with scores of women who were as proud to wear the uniform as I was, including a novice nun and a divinity student (in the Reserves). They shared the same chow, tents (sometimes), foxholes and sentry posts in the same rain and snow and blistering heat as the men and other women.

The first Veteran’s Day, you remember, was Armistice Day.

That was the date when the slaughter stopped in Europe in 1918. Belgium, France, Martinique, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe and French Guiana still call it Armistice Day. It’s Remembrance Day in Canada, United Kingdom (as Remembrance Sunday), Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands.

Since 2018, there’s been a Women’s Veteran’s Day (or Women Veterans Recognition Day) on 12 June, the date in 1948 when women were authorized to serve in the US military in peacetime. However….

Can’t we share the day with our rations, ponchos and guard shifts, ladies?

And today’s the first time in thirty-odd years I will observe 11 November without Frank DeVoy, who passed away 10 September.

See you on the other side, Frank.