On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year of our Lord 1918 the guns fell silent across Europe.
Church bells rang with joy across the United States.
Peace! Peace! The Great War is over!
The veterans of that conflict have passed into history. They leave a legacy of honor, and courage, and bravery. During conflict they died in all the usual ways and a few new ones – poison gas, machine guns, tanks – the instruments of war grew and multiplied. Trenchfoot, typhus, and influenza thinned their ranks.
Unnoticed at first, seeds of future wars were sown. Sons of these veterans would fight on these same fields and new ones. Grandsons would experience combat in jungle nations slighted in the Great Peace.
Take a moment at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in this year of our Lord 2011 to stand in silent honor for all the veterans of all the wars.
