Veteran's Day - 2009

We went to a Veteran's Day Memorial Service today. It was held precisely at 11:00 a.m., which was appropriate since Veteran's Day was originally called Armistice Day, and was the day that fighting in World War I ceased precisely at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month.


It was a very moving ceremony, and afterward we looked at the marble walls listing each of the wars that citizens of our area have been involved in.......


.....until we came to the one that our own daddy fought in. We talked about that for awhile.








I spoke with one veteran at length after the service. He shook my hand THREE times, thanking me for coming and bringing the children. He asked me to tell them of the sacrifice of so many, so they would know what others had done to protect their freedom, and wouldn't forget. I assured him I was doing my best. Sadly, apart from a couple toddlers in strollers, ours were the only children there (I know most everyone else was in school ~ the beautiful thing is, so were we!) .

Then we drove to a very old and beautiful cemetery where flags had been placed at all the veterans' graves. We walked around finding at least one grave representing a soldier from each war since the Civil War.


This is the grave of a Civil War soldier.


This was the oldest grave that our daughter G found ~ this person was born in 1807!

While we were at the cemetery, I read once again the incredibly moving poem, In Flander's Fields. This poem took the world by storm during and following WWI. It was written in 1915 by John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer, who treated hundreds of soldiers a day during the awful Second Battle of Ypres. After witnessing the death of a close friend, he wrote these words:

In Flanders Fields

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.

Because we have so recently finished learning about World War I, the impact of Armistice Day was felt very deeply by us this year. I posted previously some of what we learned, and how so many observances and memorials were begun even while the war was still going on (read that post here). World War I ushered in the "modern era" of warfare, and wars have never been the same since. It is very fitting that we should remember this war, and by extension all wars, honor the fallen, and thank those who served or are still serving.

Let us not take our freedoms for granted, nor those who put themselves in harms way to protect them.