What a day to remember! We in Atmore, along with other Americans, just celebrated Veterans Day on November 11, as we do every year no matter what day of the week the 11^th falls on, despite a short-lived effort by our federal government to place Veterans Day on the list of Monday holidays.

Things have changed since that idea was born. In 1917 our men were sent to the western European front to fight a war that President Wilson said was a “war to end all wars.” We all know that did not happen. After three bloody years, we did not see much change towards winning the war. The sad ting is we Americans had lost over 100,000 men in just 18 months.

Americans soon learned that changes across “no mans land” were fruitless. We joined with the Allies and hoped for an armistice agreement so an oral commitment to military leadership on both sides would stop the killing on November 11^th.

It took the politicians six more months to come up with a written treaty. So poor and thoughtless in its construction were they, that it led to another even more destructive war less than 20 years later.

So we see it was not the “war to end all wars.” We continue to see wars on all fronts, but we did see an armistice, even after our government tried to put it on any given Monday, to please only a few.

In 1978 Veterans Day was returned to its rightful place on our calendar and remains there today, from where it should never be removed.

This holiday’s date, November 11^th, is somewhat sacred as it was on this day in 1918 when a cease fire was called all along the western European front.

No one hates war more than soldiers. Both George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower preached against entanglements in foreign lands, and preached against the horrors of war. Unlike many politicians and leaders of times past, these presidents had seen war first hand.

Jack Wright