Happy Veterans Day!

In honor of Veterans Day, Lexie, Duchess and I have been working on perfecting our salutes. I keep telling the girls the proper way to do it is to snap your right paw above and a smidge to the right of your right eye. More times than not Lexie plops her left paw over her right eye. While Duchess uses the correct paw, like everything else she over dramatizes it. The issue all three of us have is sticking our elbows out far enough. They just don’t bend like our two-legged friends’ arms do. Anyway, enough about us. Today we give our best salute, 21 paws up and loudest “Hooahs,” “Hooyahs” and “Oorahs” to all of the men and women who have ever donned a military uniform for our country. This includes Cheryl’s grandfathers (Mack and Grier) and dad (Gary) and Wes’ dad (Dude), uncles, brother (Greg) and nephew (Josh) and, of course, Wes himself who just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. We say “thank you” and salute.

The history of Veterans Day

-- as published in The News Herald on Wednesday, Nov. 10 (we have connections).
* An armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, and is generally regarded as the end of World War I.
* In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day
* Armistice Day was made a legal holiday in 1938 to honor World War I veterans.
* In 1954 Congress amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans” to honor American veterans of all wars.
* Beginning in 1971, Veterans Day was observed on a Monday to give federal workers a three-day weekend.
* In 1978 the annual observance of Veterans Day returned to its original date of Nov. 11, because the day itself is a matter of historic and patriotic significance.
* The proper spelling is Veterans Day, without an apostrophe, because, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.”
Sources: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Burke County Veterans Services office.

A few stories from The News Herald on other veterans:

http://www2.morganton.com/news/2010/nov/11/world-war-ii-through-eyes-soldier-ar-527142/

http://www2.morganton.com/news/2010/nov/07/injured-soldier-returns-home-ar-516938/

http://www2.morganton.com/news/2010/nov/10/wife-tells-veterans-tale-strength-survival-ar-527127/