Ken Camell: Thoughts on Veterans Day

Nor have veterans’ sacrifices been limited to the time they spent in conflict.

One year later, in November 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. This month, let us also give thanks for the service, sacrifice and selfless heroism of America’s men and women in uniform.

Judging from President Donald Trump’s North Korea trash talk, the USA may be gearing up for war. In The Economist, a columnist recently explained, “The gulf between America’s armed forces and its civilians has never been greater”. In an era when an ever smaller percentage of the population signs up to enlist in the military and a near historic low percentage of members of Congress ever wore the uniform, there seems to be an element of suspicion about our military forces and, to a lesser extent, our veterans.

Sometimes the ambiguity lies within the veteran community, and sometimes within individual veterans.

Honor Flight Dayton President and Director Jim Salaman says the money will go a long way toward expanding services to veterans. Yet in the millions, good, patriotic Americans still serve us.

There are about 20.8 million of them.

Sometimes poetry is the most effective way to capture both the ambiguity and the story. There is no doubt that more and more Americans are developing a greater appreciation for the men and women who put their lives on the line in the US military.

Nancy Sherman, a professor at Georgetown University and author of “Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers”, wrote on Psychology Today’s website that she suspects “the phrase is a corrective for how we used to greet Vietnam Vets – not well, and often with disdain”. Just 21 years later, the world again became enmeshed in a global conflagration that made the first time around seem like a mere practice run for the mass annihilation that took place from 1939-45.

Our military men and women have been involved in conflicts across the globe, some seen and others unseen since our founding beginning with the American Revolution. It was not hard to miss the emotional response with many passengers wiping away tears.

One of those veterans turned ninety-five this year.

“Unsure of their way home, exhausted”. There are others who call this home, too, even for a short period of time before their next assignment.

We see them every day, usually without knowing the debt we owe them.

That older gentleman in church who sings a little louder when the hymn is “Onward Christian Soldiers” served with some of them on Guadalcanal.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the Allied powers signed an armistice with Germany in Rethondes, France.

The number of female veterans in the United States in 2016.

Bryan Wood, a combat veteran and author of the book “Unspoken Abandonment”, speaks openly about how hard it is for veterans to return home while their mind still functions as if it’s facing the danger of a war zone. But are they sufficient to helping bridge the gap?

The percentage of veterans in 2016 who were black.

In 1958, the White House advised VA’s General Counsel that the 1954 designation of the Veterans Administration Administrator as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee applied to all subsequent VA Administrators.