Veterans Day Ceremony, 2024
Author: Tony Wagner, American Legion Post 42
Veterans Day Ceremony, 2024
Tony Wagner
American Legion Post 42
On Monday, November 11, at 11:11 am, Broadwater Post 42 of the American Legion will hold a Veterans Day Ceremony at the American Legion Hall located in Townsend MT. This ceremony is to honor all veterans and we at the American Legion see conducting and attending this ceremony as both an honor and a duty. If you are a veteran please attend, if you are a veteran’s family member or friend, please come and help us in honoring all those who served this great nation.
A “Build a Burger” luncheon will be available for all attendees, after the ceremony. The meal is free to all. There will be a donation jar available for those who would like to help the American Legion defray the costs of the food.
Veterans Day is often confused with Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a day set aside for mourning all Americans who have died in the wars of our nation, from the Revolutionary War to the Wars on Terrorism, whereas Veterans Day celebrates all veterans.
The history of Veterans Day began on November 11, 1918, at 11:11 O’clock. This was the exact date and time of the armistice ending World War I.
One year later, President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech honoring that moment, stating in part, “A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and more just set of international relations”.
On June 4, 1926, Congress drafted a bill, signed by President Calvin Coolidge issuing an annual proclamation calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. Again, on May 13, 1938, a bill was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, declaring November 11 a national holiday, and Armistice Day was born.
World War I was often called “the war to end all wars”, but that peace was shattered just a little more than a year after the creation of Armistice Day, when on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. After the war, World War II veteran, Raymond Weeks, came up with the idea to have Armistice Day recognize all veterans, rather than just those of WWI. Weeks led a delegation to Washington DC to propose the idea, and it was well received by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. US Representative Ed Rees from Kansas presented the bill, and it was signed on May 26, 1954, by President Eisenhower, also from Kansas. Finally, on June 1, 1954, an additional bill was signed into law changing “Armistice” to “Veterans” and the day has been known as “Veterans Day” ever since.
