Veterans Day - November 11th

[Walt's Daughter]

In case you didn't see this on another list, here is my current monthly newspaper column, that appeared in the Nov. 7 Arab Tribune (Arab, Alabama).

 

Fred Lanting, Willow Wood Consulting

 

 

Trib “Perspective†column by Fred Lanting, Union Grove, AL

 

Veterans Day 2007

 

Do you know what special day is coming up soon? Not a holiday in the original sense of being a “holy dayâ€, but one that nevertheless obliges a modicum of reverence and thanks. When I was a bit younger, we called it Armistice Day, a day that was set aside to commemorate the end of “the war to end all wars†and honor the veterans of that conflict.

 

Actually, it was a tentative laying down of arms rather than the official end of the war, since "armistice" means a cessation of hostilities while peace and reparation were negotiated. This agreement between the Germans and the Allies to end the World War was only one of several armistices, beginning in December 1917 with the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, and then Romania's Treaty of Bucharest, marking the end of the of battle on the Eastern Front. Bulgaria stopped fighting at the end of September 30, 1918. Turkey and Austria-Hungary (where the war was ignited) agreed to an armistice on October 30 and November 3, no longer having enough men and materiel to continue. Germany agreed to the most significant armistice early in the morning of November 11, to take effect before noon, on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh monthâ€.

 

Germany was severely punished with the loss of many thousands of railroad locomotives and cars, and many other things needed in peacetime. Many Germans harbored hatred for the severity of reparations, and in a symbolic act of revenge, Hitler in 1940 forced the French to sign an armistice (surrender) on German terms. That armistice was formally signed in French Marshall Foch's railway carriage, the same one in which the 1918 strictures were laid down.

 

The November armistice initially ran for 30 days, with regular renewals until the formal peace treaty was signed at Versailles in 1919. What little that Germany had held onto at Brest was taken away by the annulment of those earlier treaties with Russia and Romania, and all German-occupied territories elsewhere were required to be given up.

 

We learned in the late 1930s that war had not been banished from society. The demonic madman who was principally responsible for the largest, most deadly conflict in history had started another war, this time truly worldwide, his initial success having encouraged Japan to attack at a militarily weak time in our history. Simultaneous war on two main fronts resulted in the deaths of about 73 million people, representing 3.7% of the population in the countries involved. Of that number, about 25 million were military, the rest being civilian casualties of action or famine and disease caused by the war. Hardest-hit may have been China and others in the East (nearly 4% of their population), Germany (11%), USSR (14%), Latvia and Lithuania (11 to 14%), and Poland (18.5%, with a substantial number of these 5 million being Jews collected from all over Europe and put into concentration camps there). U.S. battle deaths were over 292,000, mostly in the Army but thousands also in the Navy and Marine Corps. Others died later as a result of their wounds. Our civilian losses were very low compared to other countries.

 

Great loss was also suffered by those who survived, as for example in Germany alone, with 1,600,000 permanently disabled. Similar disabled-veteran and non-military percentage figures were seen in the other countries. All this is simply to remind us of the terrible costs of war. We will never be safe from such danger, for we will always have “wars and rumors of warsâ€.

 

And we will always need defenders such as the men and women in uniform whom I see every time I fly anywhere, more in some airports than others, but always in evidence. As much as I can, I tell each one of them, “Thanks for serving.â€

 

You may be against this current war, or war in general, and you might be naïve enough to believe that permanent peace this side of the grave is possible, but I urge you to express your gratitude to those whom you meet who are defenders of “liberty for all†(the word “all†hopefully including the poor blighted victims of other governments’ tyranny).

 

While it is not as easy to identify those veterans who aren’t wearing uniforms except for some ceremony on Veterans Day, let these vets also know that you appreciate their efforts in the past. Whether it’s a John Kerry-type or a John McCain POW-type veteran. Put politics aside, and say “Thank youâ€. Not just this week or on Memorial Day, but every chance you get.

 

One way of expressing thanks might be to pressure your Congressmen to support our vets better. My wife recently encountered a disabled WW2 vet (he had poor vision and damaged hearing from serving in tank warfare) who asked her to read the price on a grocery-store item to him. When he found out that he didn’t have enough in his pocket, he decided against it. In their conversation, she learned that he had exhausted his entire savings to pay for his late wife’s medical treatments, and that after having received disability payments for over three years, the government (VA or whatever was not ascertained) was revoking his eligibility and demanding thousands of dollars back. He had nothing in the bank, and would have to sell his house to comply. Is this how we must treat men who had put their lives on the line so we could have freedoms --- including those concerning what we can buy in the grocery store?

 

Don’t just thank a serviceman or a veteran — speak out for them!

 

p.s. There are a number of other concrete things you can do to say thank you. For example, Iraq casualty Army Sgt Ron Portillo has started a foundation to help get service dogs for wounded servicemen like himself (injuries require his big dog’s assistance in balance while standing and walking, and as a “hearing-aidâ€). See www.caninesforcombatwounded.org if you care to help in this way.