Veterans day in the US was originally called Armistice day, which was established in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson to recognize the end of World War I. In the British Commonwealth, 11 November is now known as Remembrance day.
Canadian John McCrae, was brigade-surgeon to the First Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery during the Second Ypres campaign. He was the author of one of my favorite poems, “In Flanders Fields”.
In April 1915, McCrae was stationed in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, in an area known as Flanders, during the bloody Second Battle of Ypres. In the midst of the tragic warfare, McCrae’s friend, twenty-two-year-old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed by artillery fire and buried in a makeshift grave. The following day, McCrae, after seeing the field of makeshift graves blooming with wild poppies, wrote his famous poem “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.
In 1921, an unknown World War I American soldier was buried in Arlington National
Cemetery. This site, on a hillside overlooking the Potomac River and the city of
Washington, D.C., became the focal point of reverence for America’s veterans.
Similar ceremonies occurred earlier in England and France, where an unknown soldier
was buried in each nation’s highest place of honor (in England, Westminster Abbey; in
France, the Arc de Triomphe). These memorial gestures all took place on November 11,
giving universal recognition to the celebrated ending of World War I fighting at 11 a.m.,
November 11, 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). The day became
known as “Armistice Day.”
Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a Congressional
resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar Congressional action. If
the idealistic hope had been realized that World War I was “the War to end all wars,”
November 11 might still be called Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday
was proclaimed, war broke out in Europe. Sixteen and one-half million Americans took
part. Four hundred seven thousand of them died in service, more than 292,000 in battle.
In 1954, President Eisenhower signed legislation renaming Armistice day to Veterans day. The legislation, introduced by Representative Edward Rees of Kansas, codified the widespread, yet unofficial, practice of celebrating all Veterans on 11 November. In 1968, Veterans day was moved to the fourth Monday in October, but that was rectified in 1978. Since then, Veterans day has been celebrated on 11 November.
On Memorial Day 1958, two more unidentified American war dead were brought from
overseas and interred in the plaza beside the unknown soldier of World War I. One was
killed in World War II, the other in the Korean War. In 1984, an unknown serviceman
from the Vietnam War was placed alongside the others. The remains from Vietnam
were exhumed May 14, 1998, identified as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie,
and removed for burial. To honor these men, symbolic of all Americans who gave their
lives in all wars, an Army honor guard, the 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard), keeps day
and night vigil.