To A Happy, and Peaceful, Veterans Day

The Garlic wishes to extend best wishes to all veterans on this holiday, marking and commemorating their service.



Veterans Day

Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans. Both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states, it is usually observed on November 11. However, if it occurs on a Sunday then the following Monday is designated for holiday leave, and if it occurs Saturday then either Saturday or Friday may be so designated.[1] It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 12, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas, shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into "All" Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans. With the help of then-U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.[3]

Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

We have seen, firsthand, the effects of war on veterans.

I am a son of a veteran, who served in World War II, the Navy, aboard a Mine Sweeper in the South Pacific.

My father's war experience was kept private mostly, as he did not want to talk about the death and carnage he witnessed.

Later, growing up, we witnessed the effects of the Vietnam War, claiming the lives of three guys from the neighborhood, and sending home about a dozen more, pretty messed up.

There is hope this Veterans Day, that with the incoming President Obama, we'll see an end to reckless aggression, and also, watch our government step up to their responsibility of caring for veterans, which this current administration has hideously failed.

And, to the day, where we will come upon a future Veterans Day, where the only Veterans honored will those of long, long ago, the world having evolved to the point that the horror of war was antiquated, and abandoned as a means to settle differences between countries.

Visit The United States Department of Veterans Affairs for more information


Fuse One " In celebration of the human spirit " 1981