(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
Fifteen countries around the world celebrate Veterans Day; however, honoring the honorees of Veterans Day in America has been a long time coming.
Veterans Day has its roots in the end of World War I, which officially ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. It was known simply as Armistice Day and became an official holiday in the United States in 1938 just as war clouds were again on the horizon in Europe and the Pacific.
According to the Veterans Administration, Armistice Day officially became Veterans Day in 1954.
For most people living in Europe in 1914, war was almost a constant. For hundreds of years, alliances changed, maps changed and men settled their differences by lining in a gentlemanly fashion and firing weapons at each other.
The people of 1914 thought the impending war would be a relatively short affair and young men all across Europe, full of patriotic zeal, eagerly signed up, as depicted in the film “All Quiet of the Western Front.”
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However, neither the Allied nor Central Powers in Europe bothered to read American history. Had they cracked open a history book, they would have learned that the American Civil War had ushered in a new form of warfare.
In the Civil War, locomotives largely replaced wagon train convoys, the high-power rifle replaced the musket and battlefields were no longer orderly, but orgies of gunfire. That war also ushered in the submarine, which would lead to both military and civilian carnage on the high seas in World War I.
War was no longer gentlemanly; it was industrialized.
In fact, World War I became so hellish that it was labeled “the war to end all wars.” After the guns fell silent, France, the United Kingdom and the United States all erected tombs to the unknown soldier and November 11 became a day to remember the dead and celebrate the survivors.
In the United States though, the celebrations would not last long.
By 1932, World War I was a distant memory for most who had not been involved. Long neglected by the federal government, 43,000 veterans camped out on the National Mall and set up their “Hoovervilles,” which were homeless encampments named for the then Depression-era President Herbert Hoover.
The veterans had descended on Washington D.C. to demand their veterans’ bonuses, which were promised, but never received.
According to the Histories of the National Mall, neither the President nor Congress wanted to deal with the sudden mass of people occupying their front lawn and so the police were called in to intervene.
After two veterans were killed by police, Hoover sent in General Douglas MacArthur and the U.S. Army to finish the job and raze the encampment.
Ironically, it was soon-to-be veterans that evicted the so-called “Bonus Army.”
Pride in the American soldier returned after World War II, where they were viewed as liberators. However, that pride would evaporate with America’s involvement in Vietnam.
For the first time, pictures from the battlefield outside the scrutiny of military censors made it onto the evening television news. Americans were horrified at stories of entire villages, including women and children, being liquidated in a hail of bullets.
Students on college campuses rallied against the war as American celebrity actress Jane Fonda traveled overseas as a guest of the North Vietnamese government.
No one asked the veterans about what they had endured when they finally returned home. No one cared. Vietnam was considered an unjust war and the soldiers were derided as baby killers.
Again, in a twist of irony, almost no American soldier signed up, full of patriotic zeal, to go to Vietnam. Most enlisted soldiers were draftees.
Since September 11, 2001, America has been almost constantly in a shooting war somewhere, and the public has largely forgotten that it is real men and women that are tasked with carrying out that military duty.
For most Americans, war resembles a video game where “shock and awe” has replaced trench warfare.
In modern vernacular, the word “war” has been canceled and replaced by phrases such as “special operation,” “peacekeeping action,” “police action” and “regional stabilization.”
What will always be true is that American young men and women have sacrificed their lives at the altar of liberty since the founding of this country.
We give veterans at home a day off while those overseas continue the fight. What most, if not all, American soldiers want is not a day off, but just a simple “thank you.”
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
