Veterans Day: How Many Days are Enough

Part of a series on "legal" holidays

This one strikes closest to home. More so even than the debt the nation owes our veterans, I owe two vets, my parents, for my existence and for inspiring my accomplishments. Veterans Day, thankfully, is generally well-observed, with many personal and societal ceremonies and tributes, even if it is not a day-off for many. That military service is a sacrifice borne by few for the benefit of many is all too clear this year. So, as legal holidays go, we seem to do right by Veterans Day; I'm more concerned about the other 364 days, but first the legal history.

Originally Armistice Day, the 11th day of the 11th month, commemorated the end of the Great War, the "war to end all wars" (was there ever a slogan you more wanted to be true?), and honored those who served in it. After World War II, which forced us to drop the slogan and recognize the Great War as World War I, and then the Korean "Conflict" (legal semantics for political purposes), Congress, in 1954, seeing the need to honor all who serve, gave the holiday its present name, Veterans Day.

Congress did a major disservice to Veterans Day when, in 1971, it separated the holiday from its roots by moving the observance to the 4th Monday in October. The American people tolerated that for only a few years and the original date was restored in 1978. But if "we must keep our covenant with them" as President Obama proclaims, then Veterans Day must be a year-long commitment.

I mentioned my parents both served. They enlisted, as many Americans do, as recent high school graduates. I am particularly indebted to an unknown designer of recruiting posters. My mother marched into the recruiting office fully intending to join the Navy, but an Air Force poster showing young people at the Eiffel Tower changed her mind. The poster was prophetic. My parents would have their first date in Paris, France.

So it was that I and my three siblings would grow-up on and around Air Force bases. So it also was that we would see our parents each earn a Bachelor's and then a Master's Degree as beneficiaries of the GI Bill. "The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944," otherwise known at the GI Bill or the GI Bill of Rights, not only carried out the covenant between this nation and its defenders, it transformed my family as it transformed the nation. Home-ownership and college lay beyond the grasp, both economically and psychologically, of much America before the GI Bill; after, everything changed.

On a recent walk around Denver's Fort Logan National Cemetery, I am struck, not by the lives cut short by war, a tragic consequence of military service, but by the long lives of many who served and the great blessings they brought to us. I imagine them, like my parents, young people who leveraged their country's investment in them to transform America. Veterans raise expectations, not just for themselves, but for their children and their children's children, and, in the process, for us all. I imagine the Fort Logan vets as entrepreneurs, teachers, police, firefighters, doctors, nurses, builders, engineers, and even lawyers. I imagine them as mothers and fathers. I see the life you and I live as defended and enabled by their ideals.

Our covenant with our vets, like all agreements, needs to be kept current. The GI Bill has been updated a few times and as recently as 2008, but still we struggle. One-third of America's homeless men are veterans. The economy facing discharged servicemen and women today is all too similar to that facing the World War I veterans whose political and literal battles with our government inspired that first GI Bill. If our investment in that "bonus army" gave birth to a transformed America, we should expect that doing our best for our modern heroes will prove more essential to our current economic reformations than any business bailout. Besides, it is the right thing to do.

 

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Comments

[billy37]

Did you know Veteran's day was celebrated in October? I just read it in this article and found it most informative.
http://ketiva.com/Politics_and_Government/the_history_of_veterans_day.html

[Happy22]

I posted some photos of the Armistice Day parade -- held in 1918 in a small town in Utah. You can view them here: http://bit.ly/37fcE2

[Jim Thomas - Huffpost Blogger]

What a blessing to have your grandmother’s remembrances in writing like that. One of our country’s problems in the last several wars is that suffering and real cost of the war aren’t felt by the general population. The joy and weeping in her town came from a shared experience. If the burden of war was more spread around more, I think we would be more thoughtful about entering conflicts, more concerned about those who had to bear the battle, and more invested in its conclusion.

[Michael Valentine]

Peace is the ultimate honor for veterans.

[Happy22]

My grandmother was a young woman working in Idaho during WWI and wrote a detailed history of what happened for her the day the Armistice was signed in 1918. She had strong feelings about what Armistice Day -- now Veterans Day-- should mean to all of us. You can read what she wrote at http://bit.ly/37RvJ1.

[jlav]

"With so many vets returning and such primitive resources for dealing with emotional problems, plus the stigma, he was condemned to a life of lonely suffering, sleeplessness, alcohol problems --- which he fought bravely --- and worst of all, a lack of understanding and compassion in his extended family and in our up-tight, gossippy midwestern community. "--- This comment really brings to light the reality of PTSD.

I was searching the web today for information on how Veteran's can deal with PTSD, and resources that are available for PTSD. I found a site that is offering a free audio therapy download for Veterans, or anyone with stress and anxiety. Visit http://www.prescriptionaudio.com/pages/ptsdsd
for more information on this download or other therapy's that Prescription Audio has to offer.

[john6576]

"I owe two vets, my parents, for my existence and for inspiring my accomplish­ments."

Hmm only two vets huh. But apparently not even enough to run the spell check before submitting a statement of your gratitude.

[Jim Thomas - Huffpost Blogger]

Sorry, John, I don’t get your point. I did spell check, and I think what I have written works, but if not, I accept public spelling and grammar faux pas as part of the gig. My blogging comes after a pretty busy schedule as a parent, lawyer, and volunteer; I do what I can do. I hope it is of some use in the community. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.

[popcornmaltese]

MY father, a WWII vet, piloted a B-24 Liberator and suffered crippling emotional post-traumatic effects for the rest of his life after the stress of those terrifying missions and a crash. His inability to work consistently and compete in the hard-driving, high-expectation economy of postwar America caused him untold suffering and self-blame and kept his family in a state of poverty and debt during much of my childhood. With so many vets returning and such primitive resources for dealing with emotional problems, plus the stigma, he was condemned to a life of lonely suffering, sleeplessness, alcohol problems --- which he fought bravely --- and worst of all, a lack of understanding and compassion in his extended family and in our up-tight, gossippy midwestern community.

As his daughter, I loved this gentle man deeply and felt a concomitant anger toward all who didn't understand him or who patronized and condemned him. We must dedicate ourselves as a society and personally to helping vets pick up their lives and get the help they need.

[Madsta]

I'm so sorry to hear about your father's troubles but glad he was so brave & you seem very proud of him regardless of his actions after.

This was a really lovely post. I completely agree, even though neither of my parents served, one set of grandparents was too young & my other grandfather had a heart murmur and was rejected by the Army in WWII. But my great-grandfather ran the North Atlantic shipping run as a ship captain in the merchant marine during WWII and was known as "Captain Wally" thereafter. I wrote this about Veteran's Day http://bellesandbulls.com/bbblog/2009/11/11/honoring-americas-past-present-future/ but it does not compare to this post.

[Jim Thomas - Huffpost Blogger]

I love the individuality of your post. (I have a notoriously poor sense of fashion myself) I see my family as the country in microcosm. My parents did nothing more than many vets did, both in the service and after it. But what they ALL did together is what made modern America. Follow the links on the history of the GI bill and it is simply amazing the impact it had on us through them.

[Jim Thomas - Huffpost Blogger]

I, too, am sorry for your father’s difficulties and that we, as a nation failed him. Your point is mine. In good times we have had a less than stellar record, so in troubled economic times like these, we need to try harder.

[Kelly Salasin]

Like how this was included: President Obama said, (if)"we must keep our covenant with them...the­n Veterans Day must be a year-long commitment­."

Here's how I, the parent of two sons, do the same:

[Jim Thomas - Huffpost Blogger]

Kelly, Thanks for commenting. The notion of a covenant with our servicemen and women is quite old. I quoted the President's official Veterans Day statement to remind us of it. The official statement didn’t include the year-round bit; it is up to us to keep reminding the country that it is ongoing, but more than that, that fulfilling it is good for us.

[oldGunny]

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country."
- President George Washington

[Jim Thomas - Huffpost Blogger]

George was right-on about a lot of things, wasn't he. Thanks for sharing the quote.