Happy Veterans Day 2018

[Brian D]

To all who served this great nation, we thank you. Giving of your time when I am sure you had better things to do is a selfless act. Know that your service made a big difference.

Thank you for your service!

 

[jon hansen]

yeah, what Brian said, thank you

 

[kappykaplan]

Tks!

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

A Brief History of Veterans Day
Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In legislation that was passed in 1938, November 11 was "dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'" As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.
In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress -- at the urging of the veterans service organizations -- amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
In 1968, the Uniforms Holiday Bill ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.
Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11.

In 1915 a Navy chaplain wrote this poem. It became the inspiration for VFW members to sell paper poppies on Veterans Day:
IN FLANDERS FIELDS THE POPPIES BLOW
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.
--by John McCrae, May 1915
(Flanders Field is a WWI American military cemetery)

--Peggie
(who spent the first 22 years of my life "on active duty" as an Army Brat)

 

[jssailem]

Thank you Brian.

You beat @JamesG161 to the message.

Happy Veterans Day all.

Thank you for your service. You made all of what we enjoy possible.

 

[Brian D]

Had to get up early, John, to beat Jim. LOL

 

[Gunni]

This day is never happy for me. It is a day of intense burden, not just for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, but for those who returned home and have needs and most importantly for those who we will inevitably see off to some new call to duty. Those who will serve deserve the best leaders and that is a job that I hope every freedom-loving American sees as their eternal duty - give our service men and women leaders who will; see service before self, and moral integrity as their first responsibility. From the CinC on down. Loyalty and Integrity down!

"The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow." - GEN Colin Powell.

 

[jssailem]

Colin Powell was a great leader.
@Gunni

 

[jssailem]

Celebrating Veterans Day with a visit to the Naval Station to see them raise the flag.

Then a great 2 hour sail in Posession Sound.

And home to strike the sails so the boat is ready for the November storms.

 

[Ron20324]

I don't know if my brother, Bob, coined this phrase or not, but I've never heard it from anyone else. Something to remember:

"Thanks to all the uniformered services. They are over THERE doing what THEY do, so WE can be over HERE doing what we do". And to that, I say "Amen, Brother".

 

[AlastairLC]

IN FLANDERS FIELDS THE POPPIES BLOW

Good one, Peggie. My person favorite is:
High Flight
By John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
(A sonnet written by John Gillespie Magee, an American pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. He came to Britain, flew in a Spitfire squadron, and was killed at the age of nineteen on 11 December 1941 during a training flight from the airfield near Scopwick.)

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds -
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of -
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

"Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God."

 

[justsomeguy]

touched the face of God."

Bet he had stubble, too.

 

[AlastairLC]

The last line of that poem was quoted by President Reagan when speaking to the country about the tragic space shuttle disaster of January 28, 1986: the NASAshuttle orbiter mission STS-51-L and the tenth flight of Space ShuttleChallenger (OV-99) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members, which consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists.

 

[Scott B]

A Brief History of Veterans Day
Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In legislation that was passed in 1938, November 11 was "dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'" As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.
In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress -- at the urging of the veterans service organizations -- amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
In 1968, the Uniforms Holiday Bill ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.
Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11.

In 1915 a Navy chaplain wrote this poem. It became the inspiration for VFW members to sell paper poppies on Veterans Day:
IN FLANDERS FIELDS THE POPPIES BLOW
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.
--by John McCrae, May 1915
(Flanders Field is a WWI American military cemetery)

--Peggie
(who spent the first 22 years of my life "on active duty" as an Army Brat)

John McCrae was actually a doctor. His family home is a Museum in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. I live just north of Guelph but work in Guelph.

n April 1915, John McCrae was in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, in the area traditionally called Flanders. Some of the heaviest fighting of the First World War took place there during the Second Battle of Ypres.

On April 22, Germans used deadly chlorine gas against Allied troops in a desperate attempt to break a stalemate. Despite the debilitating effects of the gas, Canadian soldiers fought relentlessly and held the line for another 16 days.
n the trenches, John McCrae tended hundreds of wounded soldiers every day. He was surrounded by the dead and the dying. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of the Battle of Ypres.

The day before he wrote his famous poem, one of McCrae's comrades from the artillery was killed in the fighting and buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross. Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom between the crosses marking the many graves. Unable to help his friend or any of the others who had died, John McCrae gave them a voice through his poem. It was the second last poem he was to write.

http://cityofguelph.maps.arcgis.com...x.html?appid=f39b056d38fe460f8269eed11eb3cd66

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Someone else was courteous enough to correct me privately last night. I've made the correction in my file.

--Peggie