Chris Lange, FISM News
Millions of Americans will honor the nation’s military veterans today. The federal holiday, Veteran’s Day will be commemorated by nationwide parades, including current and past service members, political speeches, and visits to military cemeteries, including Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery, where wreaths and other patriotic tokens will be laid to honor the sacrifices of U.S. veterans and those who have paid the ultimate price.
Arlington National Cemetery will also hold the 69th annual National Veterans Day Observance beginning at 11 am, where Vice President Kamal Harris will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier according to a press release. President Biden will not be in attendance as he left Thursday night to attend COP27, the climate meeting of world leaders.
Earlier this week Biden issued the annual Veteran’s Day proclamation in which he encouraged the nation to use the day to “recognize the valor, courage, and sacrifice of these patriots through appropriate ceremonies and private prayers.”
“With their selfless sacrifice, our Armed Forces have forged and defended the very idea of America — a promise of freedom and equality, democracy and justice, possibility and hope,” Biden stated. “We owe them an incredible debt that can never be fully repaid.”
Today also marks the 40th anniversary of the dedication of the Veteran’s Day Memorial on the Washington Mall. There will be a brief ceremony at the memorial in the afternoon tomorrow to remember all of those who lost their lives in the war.
For those in search of meaningful ways to honor American veterans this Nov. 11, VeteranAid — a group providing free resources to military members, their families, and surviving spouses — offers several suggestions, including adopting a military family for the holidays, donating to a trustworthy veterans’ charity or service organization, and observing a national two minutes of silence at 11 a.m.
The federal holiday has its origins in “Armistice Day,” which marked the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 that signaled the end of World War I. According to the U.S. House of Representatives archives, Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance of the armistice. Following several failed legislative attempts, Armistice Day became a national holiday in 1938. The holiday was renamed “Veterans Day” by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, at which time the observance was expanded to include military veterans of all American wars.
Twelve years later, Congress passed the controversial “Uniform Holiday Act,” moving the date to Oct. 4. The move angered veterans across the country for whom the original date’s historical significance was sacred. Forty-six states refused to comply with the change. In 1975, a bill proposal to restore the holiday to its original date was approved in the House 410 to six.