The photo is of Min — her full name is Hermione but she goes by Min — who is an Addison resident and Air Force veteran. She said she used to fly to Hawaii and many other places while she was in the Air Force. The Addison Athletic Club seniors had a Veterans Day celebration in the park today with free pizza. All the veterans had their photo taken and received a free flag pin. There was a big turnout and several veterans attended. I am not a veteran myself, but my father served in World War II. He was stationed in France and had to go to another town in France on the train. He couldn’t really read any of the signs on the train. So, at every stop, he would yell the name of the town in a questioning voice, and passengers would shake their heads no until they finally reached the town when they shook their heads yes, and he got off. He also attended college-level classes after the war at an abandoned casino in France where American professors were flown in to teach. There was a large roulette wheel leaning against one wall. Veterans protect us day and night around the world. Let’s learn more about them.
According to Wikipedia, a veteran, from Latin vetus “old,” is a person who has significant experience — and is usually adept and esteemed — and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran who has served directly in combat in a war is further defined as a war veteran — although not all military conflicts, or areas in which armed combat took place, are necessarily referred to as wars.
Military veterans are unique as a group as their lived experience is so strongly connected to the conduct of war in general and application of professional violence in particular. Therefore, there is a large body of knowledge developed through centuries of scholarly studies that seek to describe, understand and explain their lived experience in and out of service. J. Griffith with colleagues in “Reservists and Veterans: Viewed from Within and Without” in the 2020 Handbook of Military Sciences provides an overview of this research field that addresses veterans’ general health, transition from military service to civilian life, homelessness, veteran employment, civic engagement and veteran identity as recurrent investigative topics in the field.
Veterans’ experiences around the world
Britain
Ex-service is British terminology for veterans, which refers to those who have served in the British Empire or Commonwealth Armed Forces.
Britain, with its historic distrust of standing armies, did little for its veterans before the 19th century. It did set up two small hospitals for them in the 1680s. In London and other cities, the streets teemed with disabled or disfigured veterans begging for alms.
The First World War focused national attention on veterans, especially those who had been partly or wholly disabled. The King's National Roll Scheme was an employment program for disabled veterans of the First World War. Meaghan Kowalsky says it was practical, innovative and ahead of its time and was the most important piece of legislation enacted for disabled veterans in interwar Britain. In addition to direct aid, it stimulated a national discussion regarding the need for employment programs for disabled veterans and the responsibility of the state, setting up a future demand for more benefits.
In the 21st century, Britain has one of the highest densities of veterans in a major country, with 13 million in 2000, or 219 per 1,000 population.
The Congo
Some veterans from the Belgian commitment of the Congolese to WWII live in communities throughout the Congo. Though they received compensation from the government during the rule of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, after his overthrow they no longer receive pensions.
United States
In the United States, a veteran is a person who has served in the armed forces — including the United States National Guard and Reserve — and was discharged under conditions other than dishonorable. A common misconception is that only those who have served in combat or those who have retired from active duty can be called military veterans.
In 1990, 40% of young Americans had a veteran for a parent; this decreased to 16% in 2014. In 2016, of the veterans who were born outside of the United States, Mexican and Filipino Americans made up the two largest populations, with 3% of all veterans having been born outside of the United States. As of 2017 there are some 21 million American veterans.
According to the Pew Research Center, "Among men, only 4% of millennials [born 1981-96] are veterans, compared with 47%" of men in their 70s and 80s, "many of whom came of age during the Korean War and its aftermath."
Veterans’ benefits in the United States
President Abraham Lincoln, in his second inaugural address in 1865 towards the end of the American Civil War, famously called for good treatment of veterans: "[T]o care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." The American Civil War produced veterans' organizations, such as the Grand Army of the Republic and United Confederate Veterans. The treatment of veterans changed after the First World War. In the years following, discontented veterans became a source of instability. They could quickly organize, had links to the army and often had arms themselves. The Bonus Army of unemployed veterans was one of the most important protest movements of the Great Depression, marching on Washington, D.C. to get a claimed bonus now that Congress had promised them decades in the future.
Each state of the United States sets specific criteria for state-specific veterans' benefits. For federal medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, prior to September 7, 1980, the veteran must have served at least 180 days of active duty, after the above-mentioned date the veteran must have served at least 24 months. However, if the veteran was medically discharged and receives a VA service-connected disability stipend, the time limits are not applicable.
American veteran experience after World War II
After the Second World War, in part due to the experience of the First World War, most of the participating states set up elaborate veterans' administrations. Within the United States, it was veterans groups — like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars organization — that pushed for and got the G.I. Bill enacted. These gave veterans access to free or subsidized education and health care. The newly educated GIs created a significant economic impact, and with the aid of VA loans, were able to buy housing and establish themselves as part of a growing American middle class. The explosion of the suburbs created sufficient housing for veterans and their families.
American veteran experience after OEF and OIF
Many veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom have had to face challenges unique to warfare in the 21st century. Operation Enduring Freedom was the official name used by the U.S. government for the Global War on Terrorism. On October 7, 2001, in response to the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush announced that airstrikes targeting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban had begun in Afghanistan. The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict from 2003 to 2011 that began with the invasion of Iraq by the United States–led coalition which overthrew the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. One significant difference between OEF and OIF and previous wars is a greater dependence on reservists and repeat deployments. Up to 80% of troops deployed at the beginning of OEF were part of the National Guard and Reserve and about 40% of currently serving military members have been deployed more than once. This has meant that many deployed troops — not being as “ steeped in military culture” — have had more difficult transitions into military life, and for many, the increased redeployment rate has meant more transitions, more uncertainty, longer terms and shorter dwell times, all of which contribute to greater stress.
Due to medical advances, warfare in the 21st century tends to yield more survivors with severe injuries which soldiers in previous wars would have died from. This means that though fewer service members die, more return from war with injuries more serious, and, in turn, more emotionally devastating than ever before. Among these injuries is the increasingly common traumatic brain injury or TBI, the effects of which can range from a mild concussion to amnesia and serious neurological damage.
Female veterans in the U.S.
Women have served in the United States military for over 200 years. Some female veterans perceive themselves as discriminated against by their male counterparts and, as such, women who have served in the armed forces have sometimes been known as "the invisible veterans." Women were not fully recognized as veterans until after WWII, and prior to this they were not eligible for VA benefits. The current percentage of U.S. veterans who are women is more than 8%. Women make up nearly 11.6% of OEF/OIF/OND Veterans. A tri-state — Washington, Idaho and Oregon — women veterans conference in Pendleton, Oregon, in April 2008, attracted 362 women veterans, according to the East Oregonian newspaper. A growing number of states are recognizing June 12 as Women Veterans Day, either through proclamation or legislative action.
On August 5, 2011, Erica Borggren was appointed director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and has been "creating a new women veterans program to help address the issue that women veterans often do not self-identify as veterans and do not take advantage of veterans’ benefits to the same extent as their male peers." She gathered in a webcast panel moderated by Stacey Baca with Dr. Rebecca J. Hannagan and Kimberly Mitchell at the Pritzker Military Library on January 24, 2013, to discuss important issues facing female veterans in today's military.
African American veterans in the U.S.
African Americans have participated in every war fought by or within the United States. Black veterans from World War I experienced racial persecution on returning to the U.S. from overseas, particularly in Southern cities. Black veterans from World War II continued to be denied equality at home despite President Harry S. Truman's desegregation of the military after World War II. Black veterans went on to play a central role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The National Association for Black Veterans is an organization that provides advocacy and support for African American and other minority veterans.
Health effects of military service and treatment for veterans
The effect of active military service can be profound and lasting, and some veterans have found it difficult to adjust to normal life again. Figures from 2009 showed that twice as many veterans were in prison than there were British troops in Afghanistan. Homelessness, street-sleeping and relationship breakdown are also commonly reported. Research done by the UK homelessness charity CRISIS in 1994 and the Ex-Services Action Group in 1997 both found that a quarter of homeless people had previously served in the armed forces. The Times newspaper reported on September 25, 2009 that in England and Wales the number of "military veterans in jail has more than doubled in six years." Another Times article of the same date quoted the veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress as reporting a 53% increase in referrals from doctors.
Suicide
An article in the London Metro on January 28, 2010 was titled "Veterans prone to suicide" and cited a report by the Mental Health Foundation which said that not enough was being done to care for the Afghanistan war veterans, and many "plunged into alcohol problems, crime and suicide" upon their return. Indeed, in the U.S., the suicide rate among veterans is 300% the national average. They account for 30% of the suicides in the U.S. annually. Support services were found to be patchy from area to area.
According to a 2015 report by the Japanese Ministry of Defense, 56 Japan Self Defense Force members committed suicide after serving in overseas missions to Iraq and the Indian Ocean. These are 27 personnel who participated in refueling operations in the Indian Ocean from 2001 till 2007. Twenty-nine JGSDF and JASDF members committed suicide after returning home from a reconstruction mission in the Iraqi city Samawah from 2003 till 2009. In Iraq the SDF members experienced violence such as roadside bombs and rocket attacks. Defense officials stated that 14 deaths are due to mental illness, 13 due to family or financial problems and 3 due to official SDF duties. The cause is unclear and under investigation. It could be due to increased stress and duties being more difficult than they anticipated. Medical and social support should be improved for veterans.
Posttraumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is a condition that affects a significant number of veterans. Studies involving veterans with combat-related PTSD indicate that between 4-17% of United States veterans have been diagnosed with PTSD. Their United Kingdom counterparts, however, have significantly lower numbers of just 3-6%.
New treatment programs are emerging to assist veterans suffering from post-combat mental health problems such as depression and PTSD. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT is becoming an important method for the treatment of mental health issues among veterans and is currently considered the standard of care for depression and PTSD by the United States Department of Defense. CBT is a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to change the patterns of thinking or behavior that are responsible for patients’ negative emotions, and in doing so, change the way they feel. It has been proven to be an effective treatment for PTSD among war veterans. Recently, online programs that pair CBT with therapist interaction have also proven effective in treating mental health problems among veterans. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is also an effective and noninvasive, drug-free treatment for PTSD, although it has not been tested against specific military traumatic exposure for efficacy.
Veterans under the age of 25 are at higher risk for PTSD than veterans older than 25. Younger veterans with severe PTSD are at higher risk for metabolic syndrome and suicide.
Music therapy provides veterans with a way to express themselves, escape from anxiety and helps them cope with their PTSD. In Marty Steiner's “Music and Science Meet…Music Therapy”, Steiner explains “Modern music therapy became a norm in the Veteran's Administration hospitals during and after both World Wars. In its most basic form the playing of recordings on the Victrola in WW I hospitals had measurable positive effects on the wounded and shell-shocked patients. This began the use of a somewhat primitive music therapy in all American military hospitals.”
Other disorders
Veterans are at higher risk than the general population for several disorders, especially younger veterans — those younger than 25. Younger veterans are at increased risk for substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder, and mental illnesses in general.
Help for veterans
Necessity has resulted in many sources of help being made available for veterans. Several of these are independent, charitable organizations, and in some countries, the aftercare and rehabilitation services provided by governments have been inadequate. This may be because they do not wish to give attention to the negative effects of military service and the difficulties of readjustment to civilian life, for it may have an adverse impact upon recruitment for their armed forces. Nevertheless, help is available and veterans should feel able to make contact and ask for assistance or advice from the broad network of organizations and from appropriate legislators, without feeling that this is a weakness. Military service can be a profoundly unnatural experience, and it is likely that some help may be needed in debriefing and rehabilitation into the community — whether it be medical, psychological, practical or financial. There were an estimated 57,849 homeless veterans in the United States during January 2013, accounting for 12% of all homeless adults. Just under 8% of homeless U.S. veterans are female.
Veterans Day
The photo is of U.S. World War I veteran Joseph Ambrose (1896–1988) attending the dedication parade for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982, wearing his original Brodie helmet and doughboy uniform and holding the flag that covered the casket of his son, Clement, who was killed in the Korean War.
Veterans Day — originally known as Armistice Day — is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11 for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces, who were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable. It coincides with other holidays including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day which are celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the armistice with Germany went into effect. At the urging of major U.S. veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.
Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday in May. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who had died while in military service. Another military holiday that also occurs in May, Armed Forces Day, honors those currently serving in the U.S. military. Additionally, Women Veterans Day is recognized by a growing number of U.S. states that specifically honor women who have served in the U.S. military.
History
On November 11, 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson issued a message to his countrymen on the first Armistice Day, in which he expressed what he felt the day meant to Americans:
ADDRESS TO FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN
The White House, November 11, 1919.
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. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.
With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.
Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.
To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.
WOODROW WILSON
The United States Congress adopted a resolution on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue annual proclamations calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. A Congressional Act approved May 13, 1938, made November 11 in each year a legal holiday: "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'"
In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day. Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama and annually until his death in 1985. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the "Father of Veterans Day."
U.S. representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the holiday through Congress. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954. It had been eight and a half years since Weeks held his first Armistice Day celebration for all veterans.
Congress amended the bill on June 1, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with "Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day since.
The National Veterans Award was also created in 1954. Congressman Rees of Kansas received the first National Veterans Award in Birmingham, Alabama, for his support in offering legislation to make Veterans Day a federal holiday.
Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978, it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then organizations that formally observe the holiday will normally be closed on the adjacent Friday or Monday, respectively.
Observance
Because it is a federal holiday, some American workers and many students have Veterans Day off from work or school. When Veterans Day falls on a Saturday, then either Saturday or the preceding Friday may be designated as the holiday, whereas if it falls on a Sunday it is typically observed on the following Monday. When it falls on the weekend, many private companies offer it as a floating holiday where employees can choose some other day. A Society for Human Resource Management poll in 2010 found that 21% of employers planned to observe the holiday in 2011.
Legally, two minutes of silence is recommended to be observed at 2:11pm Eastern Standard Time.
Nonessential federal government offices are closed. No mail is delivered. All federal workers are paid for the holiday; those who are required to work on the holiday sometimes receive holiday pay for that day in addition to their wages.
Armistice Day
In his Armistice Day address to Congress, Wilson was sensitive to the psychological toll of the lean war years: "Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness," he remarked. As Veterans Day and the birthday of the United States Marine Corps — November 10, 1775 — are only one day apart, that branch of the Armed Forces customarily observes both occasions as a 96-hour liberty period.
Election Day is a regular working day, while Veterans Day, which typically falls the following week, is a federal holiday. The National Commission on Federal Election Reform called for the holidays to be merged, so citizens can have a day off to vote. They state this as a way to honor voting by exercising democratic rights.
Spelling of Veterans Day
While the holiday is commonly printed as Veteran's Day or Veterans' Day in calendars and advertisements, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs website states that the attributive — no apostrophe — rather than the possessive case is the official spelling "because it is not a day that 'belongs' to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans."
Remembrance poppy
The remembrance poppy is an artificial flower worn in some countries to commemorate their military personnel who died in war. Veterans' associations exchange poppies for charitable donations used to give financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the armed forces.
Inspired by the war poem "In Flanders Fields," and promoted by American professor Moina Michael, they were first used near the end of World War I to commemorate British Empire and United States military casualties of the war. Madame Guérin established the first "Poppy Days" to raise funds for veterans, widows, orphans, liberty bonds and charities such as the Red Cross.
Today, the remembrance poppy is mainly used in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, where it has been trademarked by veterans' associations for fundraising. In these countries, small remembrance poppies are often worn on clothing leading up to Remembrance Day/Armistice Day, and poppy wreaths are often laid at war memorials. In Australia and New Zealand, they are also worn on Anzac Day.
The Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal has caused controversy in recent decades, with some — including British Army veterans — arguing that the symbol has been used excessively to marshal support for British military campaigns and that public figures have been pressured to wear the poppies.
Origins
The opening lines of the World War I poem "In Flanders Fields" refer to poppies growing among the graves of war victims in a region of Belgium. The poem is written from the point of view of the fallen soldiers and in its last verse, the soldiers call on the living to continue the conflict. The poem was written by Canadian physician John McCrae on May 3, 1915 after witnessing the death of his friend and fellow soldier the day before. The poem was first published on December 8, 1915 in the London-based magazine Punch.
Moina Michael — who had taken leave from her professorship at the University of Georgia to be a volunteer worker for the American YMCA Overseas War Secretaries Organization — was inspired by the poem. She published a poem of her own called "We Shall Keep the Faith" in 1918. In tribute to McCrae's poem, she vowed to always wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who fought in and assisted with the war. At a November 1918 YMCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference, she appeared with a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed 25 more poppies to attendees. She then campaigned to have the poppy adopted as a national symbol of remembrance.
At its conference in 1920, the National American Legion adopted the poppy as their official symbol of remembrance. Frenchwoman Madame Guérin was invited to address American Legion delegates at their 1920 Cleveland Convention about Inter-Allied Poppy Day. After the convention, the American Legion too adopted the poppy as its memorial flower and committed to support Madame Guérin in her planned U.S. Poppy Day. It was also following this event that the American Legion christened her as "The Poppy Lady from France." She successfully organized the U.S.'s first nationwide Poppy Day during the week before Memorial Day in May 1921 using silk poppies made by the widows and children of the devastated regions of France.
When the American Legion stopped using the poppy symbol in favor of the daisy, Veterans of Foreign Wars' members supported Madame Guérin instead. Using French-made poppies purchased through her, the V.F.W. organized the first veterans' Poppy Day Drive in the U.S., for the 1922 Memorial Day. In 1924, the Veterans of Foreign Wars patented the Buddy Poppy.
Madame Guérin's Inter-Allied Poppy Day idea was also adopted by military veterans' groups in parts of the British Empire. After the 1921 Memorial Day in the U.S., Madame Guérin traveled to Canada. After she addressed the Great War Veteran Association on July 4, the group also adopted the poppy emblem as well as the Inter-Allied Poppy Day concept. They were the first veterans of the British Empire — predecessor of the Commonwealth of Nations — to do so.
Madame Guérin sent Colonel Moffat — ex-American Red Cross — to Australia and New Zealand and probably South Africa afterwards as her representative. She then traveled to Great Britain, where she informed Field Marshal Douglas Haig and the Royal British Legion about her idea. Because it was an underfunded organization, she paid for the British remembrance poppies herself, and the British Legion reimbursed her after the first British Remembrance Day Poppy Day on November 11, 1921.
James Fox notes that all the countries which adopted the remembrance poppy were victors of World War I.
An early reference to war and poppies in Flanders is found in the book “The Scottish Soldiers of Fortune” by James Grant:
The Scots in Holland and Flanders: At Neerwinden, in 1693, the brigade again suffered heavy loss, and William was compelled again to give way before the white-coated infantry of France with the loss of 10,000 men. "During many months after," wrote the Earl of Perth to his sister (as quoted by Macaulay), "the ground was strewn with skulls and bones of horses and men, and with fragments of hats, shoes, saddles, and holsters. The next summer the soil, fertilized by 20,000 corpses, broke forth into millions of scarlet poppies."
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