Posted on by Dick

Believe it or not: Veterans Day is a key to modern history

American knowledge of Veterans Day and more importantly, of veterans, has had to have increased somewhat due to 9/11 and the wars that followed. I’m sure if one were to do a *”Jay Walking” (as in Jay Leno) bit and ask random people on the street what Veterans Day originally signified it would be followed by a blank stare or some completely inane utterance  from the respondent.

The day we now know as Veterans Day on November 11 was originally called Armistice Day and marked the cessation of fighting between Germany and the Allied nations. That stop of carnage occurred at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Wow, wonder what will happen next year? 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month, 11th year? The armistice marked the end of what was first known as “The Great War” or the “War To End All Wars.” Unfortunately, that was just the first act, also known as World War I.

If World War II, Korea and even Vietnam seems foreign to most young people these days, then WWI must be thought of as totally “like” ancient. Some of the veterans of that brutal war, fought often in trenches and where soldiers could find themselves maimed by poisonous mustard gas, were still alive when I was a kid. I talked to several veterans who were just as reluctant to tell their tales of horrors from that war as were their sons who fought again in Europe and as well as in Africa and Asia in the Great War’s encore.

A U.S. soldier fires at the enemy in World War I using a French contraption attached to his rifle to better allow shooting from a trench.

TV was full of war when I was a kid. These were WWII stories during the prime time of the 1960s. My favorites included “The Rat Patrol,” about warfare in northern Africa against perhaps Germany’s most brilliant leader, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Other favorites included “Combat!,” as well as lighter fare such as “The Wackiest Ship in the Army” and “Hogan’s Heroes.”

When we played war as kids we played World War II. Usually the Germans and the Americans, and sometimes the U.S. and the Japanese. It was always a short straw to be a “Jerry” and even shorter to be a “J*p,” as ignorant little East Texas peckerwoods like yours truly called them back then.

It was World War I — and to some degree the Civil War, Spanish-American War and the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa — that really put great chunks of the Earth in combat against one another. It was also where modern warfare was finely honed and where fatality counts ran into the tens of millions — nearly 20 million ball park. The U.S., entering late, still lost more than 116,000 of our brave young men. More than 205,000 were wounded. Many of the modern machines of war were first used with regularity in that war, the airplane, the machine gun, submarines, tanks, the list goes on.

I always loved the study of history even if the subject matter often was littered with as much foolishness and death as it was showcasing triumph of the human spirit. Whether it was Santayana who said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” or if he lifted it, the quote can be rightfully considered a truth. Likewise, I wish American school students were given a healthy dose of World War I study or perhaps the “War To End All Wars” could be the subject of a riveting docudrama series such as “Band of Brothers,” for the first World War stands as a big piece of a puzzle that remains to this very days. See “Balkans.” I would hate to bore my fellow Americans, not that I really care whether boredom is their chief complaint. I would just like my fellow countryman to understand the meaning and importance of this great war behind “Veterans Day.” Just as how “veterans” is the most important component of Veterans Day.

There is no telling what our Texas State Board of Education will end up doing with World War I in school books. The U.S. entered that war under President Woodrow Wilson, a progressive Democrat, who was essentially against the war before he was for it.

Still, given a good many 20th century folks remain among us, we should realize just how important that ancient first World War is to our being in the present and the future. In short, we could find out a lot more about what might happen tomorrow or in the future if we set aside some time for reading about the war to end all wars which wasn’t instead of watching Bristol Palin dance with the stars. Given the choice, the pick is a very easy one for me to make.

Happy Veterans Day to our veterans and our veterans-to-be.  Remember WWI, and all the others.

*Listening to answers on the Jay Walking segments tend to make me sad rather than willing to laugh.

If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.