By: Bob Adner

November 11, 1918 was the day the an armistice was signed between Germany and the Allies ending World War I , “The war to end all wars”.  Sadly, this did not happen. Some years later, Adolph Hitler rose to power and despite the Geneva Convention forbidding the rearming of Germany, he built it into a formidable war machine. He then attacked one country after another crushing them under the iron heel of the Third Reich.  The Empire of Japan without provocation attacked the United States on December 7, 1941. This plunged the world into the second World War. After the end of the second World War Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day in 1954, to honor the still living and the dead of both wars. Now let us look back and see what those two wars really did to our country.

At the beginning of WWI many of the youths and men who joined the armed services had never seen or ridden in an auto-train or plane. Straight from the farm or factory they answered the call. Verdun - the Maginot line - wherever - they laid down their lives - be it on the land or sea. Soon they were vets.

World War II was much the same. After Pearl Harbor recruiting stations were mobbed. Young men who had never driven a car - walked in the moonlight with a special girl. or had never explored the world outsider their home town, rushed to “join up”. Girls signed up for nursing school. Boys who had a problem killing a chicken for Sunday dinner found themselves on the business end of a high-powered rifle and were told to kill another human being. These are the men and women who stood between The United States and the forces arrayed against it. To quote John Edmond Maxwell, “They gave their todays for our tomorrows.” They are truly our veterans!