The American Spectator

Happy22| 11.11.09 @ 4:02PM

What a great way to remember! My grandmother wrote a moving history of what she remembered about the original Armistice Day. She had strong feelings about using this day for remembering. You can read what she wrote here. http://bit.ly/37RvJ1

Richard Baker| 11.11.09 @ 4:53PM

Went to the local Applebee's today for lunch on them. The room was filled with fellow veterans from WWII to the present. My thanks to Applebee's for thinking of us.
Oh, at the end of the day, I received a Bloomin' Onion at the local Outback restaurant, again on them. To all the companies who thought of Veterans on this day, I salute you all for the thoughtfulness. This day is a time for Veterans to remember lost comrades and sacrifices made in the past. For me, this was the best Veterans Day, ever.

In my area| 11.11.09 @ 5:25PM

I work at a large community college. We have a whole week of Veterans Day activities planned.

Today a trumpeter played Taps and a Native American employee sang a traditional song of his tribe in tribute to our fallen soldiers. It was very moving and I was pleasantly surprised to see so many attending on a college campus.

Ken (Old Texican)| 11.11.09 @ 5:54PM

Father,
Please forgive our service men and women their sins.
Welcome them into your kingdom...In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen

Joe| 11.11.09 @ 8:08PM

I think Americans should follow like other nations and pay a bit more respect. I like the idea that Canadians have by wearing the poppy from Nov 1st through November 11th or at least on Nov 11th.

Selling the poppies for whatever a person wants to donate also helps raise funds for Vets and their families.... EXCELLENT IDEA!!

pete2| 11.11.09 @ 8:40PM

The VFW have been been selling poppies for as long as I can remember (I'm 61). Yes, it is a great tradition and I think of the poem Flanders Field everytime I see them. I am a veteran myself (Vietnam). Veterans Day has always moved me also.

Pete2| 11.11.09 @ 8:51PM

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
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.

cjniya| 11.12.09 @ 6:56PM

When I came back from my grandfather’s house, his stories were still told in my ears. Today is Veterans Day and as usual, I visited my grandfather’s battle companions, with whom my grandfather suffered the Second World War, with my grandfather. It is an informal way to celebrate the Veterans Day. It is a little boring, to be honest, but it could also tell me lots about the Second World War. My grandfather and his friends are not the heroes in the war, they were just the ordinary soldiers who wished to go back home early and wished that the war could come to the end early. They tell me how they felt at the nights in the cold, dark trench. They tell me how anxious they felt when their battle companions died.
Their get together is the calm one which only the old songs sang in the room and old men’s talk fulfills the room. No violent movement, no rubber wristbands shaking with the hands rise up, no impassioned speech, only the mood that they just congratulated themselves on having made a narrow escapes from death. I think every anti-war match should have an old veteran from the battle of Second World War, only these veterans could tell us the true feeling of war. They were there with death face to face; they do not even know whether they could see the sunrise on the next day.
I thought that soldiers should be the ones who love wars, but my grandfather’s story tells me that no one would like to kiss death in the cold dark place with family surrounded. And wars leave us not only the scares in the battle but also would company with the soldiers all their life long. The soldiers for Second World War, the soldiers from Vietnam War and the soldiers back from Baghdad would suffer a lot that they could not express clearly. Every year the number of veterans appears in my grandfather’s get together become less and less, may be one day all these alive history books would dismiss from this world.

TetVet68| 11.14.09 @ 12:03PM

Remember Pearl Harbor -- Keep America Alert!

America's oldest living Medal of Honor recipient, living his 101st year is former enlisted Chief Petty Officer, Aviation Chief Ordnanceman (ACOM), later wartime commissioned Lieutenant John W. Finn, U. S. Navy (Ret.). He is also the last surviving Medal of Honor, "The Day of Infamy", Japanese Attack on the Hawaiian Islands, Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, 7 December 1941.

(Now deceased) 'Navy Centenarian Sailor', 103 year old, former enlisted Chief Petty Officer, Aviation Chief Radioman (ACRM, Combat Aircrewman), later wartime commissioned Chief Warrant Officer Julio 'Jay' Ereneta, U. S. Navy (Ret.), is a thirty year career veteran of World War One and World War Two. He first flew aircrewman in August 1922; flew rearseat Radioman/Gunner (1920s/1930s) in the tactical air squadrons of the Navy's first aircraft carriers, USS LANGLEY (CV-1) and USS LEXINGTON (CV-2).

Visit my photo album tribute to these centenarian veteran shipmates:

http://news.webshots.com/album/123286873BFAAiq

http://news.webshots.com/album/141695570BONFYl

San Diego, California