Today in the US is Veterans Day. The origin of the day is the end of WWI. World War I was formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. Around 15 to 22 million military and civilians were killed in "The Great War", with 22 million having injuries. I remember when I was about 10 years old, my parents had farmed me out, some afternoons, to an elderly German man who had been a POW held in UK during WWI. On Nov 11, at 11:00 am, we stood and faced East with our hands over our hearts. He called it Armistice Day. He became a Unitarian, his daughter was Unitarian minister. In my yard is a gingko tree, a seedling from the tree in his yard. Her obituary stated that they escaped Germany in 1913. If history teaches us anything, it's that we don't know enough history. And history rhymes with earlier history - the same themes, different stories. The other lesson has been said many times, that there will always be wars. I think that's been true since the first modern humans met the first Neanderthals, and each other. Certainly prehistory, on every continent, is filled with war. And it has never stopped since. I wish we could see ourselves in strangers Maybe that would help. But we rarely do. Since 1800 https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace In 1954, Armistice day was expanded to Veterans day. WWII dwarfed WWI in its brutality. About 70 million to 85 million casualties, possibly half being civilians. The memory is beginning to fade in our time. That's unfortunate. If we forget, there will be worse ahead. Already true in some places. I'm not certain there should be a day just honoring soldiers, sailors, airforce and marines, without honoring the hundreds of millions of civilians caught in war. Maybe we would feel less likely to wage wars if we also remembered the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and children affect by war. But for now, it's what we have. Back in the 1970s, I was a very lucky young soldier, as a medic. In the huge scheme of things, my role was very minor. There were some "incidents" (my biggest worry was how my decision might affect my parents) but mostly those personal risks were dwarfed by the far greater sacrifices of others, military and civilian. Still, I take a lot of pride and remember to thank veterans in my world for their service. That's what Veterans day is for. Have a nice day, everyone. Hope for peace whenever it can happen. On that note, I'll end my thoughts. Here I was in Turkey, about 1976. I don't recall why there was no name tag. Technically we were US Army because of conflicts between Greece and Turkey, and Greece was part of NATO.
Thank you @Daniel W for your service. And a very handsome young man pictured in the army uniform. I posted a video about this in mega videos. Thank you to all those who have served our country to protect against evil and corruption. And pray for peace for those countries who are fighting against evil now and may they find peace.
