There is no such thing as veteranism – unless you think about The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. These are professional veterans. I am going to try to find conclusions about why we have Veteran’s Day at all.  Now, you must understand, I am a bona-fide veteran of World War II.  I did not wait to be drafted; I enlisted.  That does not make me any better or worse than any other soldier from that period or from any other war in which Americans have fought. What it does is fill up two years of my life with memories of being a replacement soldier long after the divisions and battalions were formed that began the assault on Europe.  I was shunted off to St. Nazaire and St. Laurent which were the sites of German submarine pens on the English Channel and then followed the troops going west to meet the Russians becoming, finally a member of the 235^th Infantry holding captive Austria and Salzburg. Before that I was a Black Panther, 66^th Infantry.  I got to see a lot of European countryside from a 40 & 8 which is the way cattle cars were described in those days.

I missed the shooting war, but I was in uniform and undeniably a soldier. I am not so sure about being a veteran.  There is one day a year devoted to celebrating the veterans of the current war and all the previous ones.  As a child I remember the parades and I actually saw veterans of the Civil War marching along side those who fought in the Spanish American War and World War I.  When I went to war there were fewer and fewer veterans of previous wars.  Today there may be one or two members of the Expeditionary Force that landed in France for the two year participation of America in World War I.  I am now one of the dwindling members of the huge army assembled to fight in World War II.

What George Washington said was probably true for his day. We owe a debt of gratitude and a debt of honor for those who fought for freedom from English colonialism.  We owe a whole lot more than gratitude and honor for those who gave their lives for American causes.  We cannot do enough for those whose lives have been lost and families left to grieve.  For those maimed and hidden away in Veterans Hospitals, there is not too much that we should do to try to help them in their lives of distress. It does not help much to think that November 11 once celebrated Armistice Day that ended World War I.  Nowadays it is all inclusive. This one day that we officially recall Armistice Day and Veterans Day is institutionalizing it.

Just one more thought about veterans.  History is written by the victors. What about those veterans of wars fought AGAINST us?  Should not all soldiers who fight out of conviction be honored in some way? I sometimes think that those who gave their lives for ideals we cannot share should also be memorialized. What do you think?