Honoring our freedom fighters

As we observe Veterans Day, our first thoughts should be obvious

ones. American troops are fighting in the streets of a city far from

their homes, in conditions and under stress the large majority of us

will never know. Our first thoughts and our deepest prayers should be

with them and with their families.

There are, of course, many who do know and who do understand what

our troops are living through today. They walked across frozen hills

in Korea. They charged often elusive enemy soldiers in Vietnam. They

crossed the same desert where our men and women again are doing

battle. They landed on the beaches of Normandy more than 60 years

ago, turning the tide in World War II.

For their sacrifices, they, too, deserve our thoughts, our prayers

and our thanks. They have earned it, and they have every right to it.

America first recognized Veterans Day in 1926 as Armistice Day, a

commemoration of the end of World War I and those who fought in it.

In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, veterans urged

Congress to change the holiday’s name, replacing the word armistice

with veterans to broaden the day’s meaning.

Later that year, President Dwight Eisenhower issued the first

“Veterans Day Proclamation.” His words remain a poignant challenge to

us all: “Now, therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, president of the

United States of America, do hereby call upon all of our citizens to

observe Thursday, Nov. 11, 1954, as Veterans Day. On that day let us

solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so

valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to

preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves

to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts

shall not have been in vain.”

Let us all, indeed.