Veterans day a day in honor of veterans

In the United States, November 11 is Veterans Day. Parades and ceremonies are held to honor veterans who served in the military, and those who do so today.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans will mark Veterans Day 2022 a little differently.

For example, the city of Edinburgh, Texas, is hosting a virtual parade featuring photos of veterans and videos, some honoring fallen heroes and others featuring marching bands. Many other cities in the United States may well adopt similar models. Note that all events organized in the country to honor veterans, including overflights by military aircraft, will comply with social distancing guidelines, and the wearing of masks will be required.

But what this holiday means for America will not change.

“As we celebrate Veterans Day, we take time to honor the brave men and women who shrugged off fear and stood up faithfully for America and our freedom,” President Trump said on the occasion. Veterans Day 2019. The truth of these words rings out every year.

In 2020, as always, the Memorial Amphitheater enclosing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, remains at the heart of national ceremonies held on Veterans Day. Traditions are firmly respected: a joint honor guard, representing all the army corps, presents arms at the foot of the tomb, the president lays a wreath and a bugler begins “The Last Bugler” (Taps), the moving ringtone “to the Dead” played at military funerals in the United States.

In 1958, two unidentified Americans who died in action, one from World War II and the other from the Korean War, were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery alongside the Unknown Soldier from World War I. world. In 1984, an unknown soldier from the Vietnam War was placed alongside them. They symbolize all Americans who have given their lives in all wars.

The remains of the unknown soldier from the Vietnam War were exhumed in 1998; she was identified through a DNA test and buried in another cemetery. Since then, this crypt has been vacant.

Armistice Day becomes Veterans Day

In the United States, November 11 originally marked Armistice Day, which, known as Veterans’ Day, commemorates the end of World War I under the terms of the armistice that came into effect at 11:00 a.m. on 11 November 1918 – the 11th ^hour of the 11th ^day of the 11th ^month . President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day a year later.

To honor the 16 million Americans who fought in World War II (including the 40,700 soldiers who died there) and others who served the nation in all previous wars, Congress and President Eisenhower, in 1954, renamed the November 11 holiday “Veterans Day.” In his first proclamation for Eisenhower Day, he wrote, “Let us renew our commitment to the promotion of a lasting peace that their efforts may not be in vain.

On Veterans Day 2004, veterans attended the dedication of the National Memorial to World War II Veterans on the plaza in Washington called the National Mall, between the monument in memory of President Lincoln and the Washington Monument. A nearby Korean War Memorial features 19 statues representing a brigade on patrol. More than 54,000 American soldiers gave their lives during this conflict which lasted three years.

The Vietnam War Veterans Monument, inaugurated in 1982 and also on the National Mall, is made up of two black granite walls on which are engraved the names of the more than 58,000 members of the American armed forces killed or disappeared during the Vietnam War.

The monument to the female veterans of Vietnam was inaugurated in 1993. Located a few meters from the main monument in tribute to the veterans of this war, it depicts three women, including one providing care to a wounded soldier. Nearly 2.6 million men and 7,500 women served in Vietnam; among them, more than 83% did so as nurses.

In 2018, according to the census bureau, the United States had 18 million veterans, that is to say former soldiers, whether they returned from war or not.