Veterans' Day

Today is the 89th anniversary of the end of World War I--the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. I've told this before, but on that first armistice day the signal in the rural areas of Illinois was the bells ringing. My parents were both little children living on farms in adjacent counties (Lee and Ogle) in Illinois. Both had exactly the same memory--as each farmer heard the bell, he'd start ringing his bell, then the next farm would pick it up, and thus the whole countryside learned the war was officially over. Now it is a memorial for veterans of all wars (Memorial Day in May is for those who died in or as a result of battle).


Google, which often dresses up for other occasions, finally acknowledged it--the helmets are definitely WWI vintage.


When I was in Illinois over the 4th, we found our father's name at the new veterans' memorial in Forreston. We talked about all the surnames we recognized, even from the Civil War era (we're really not that old, but knew the family names).

The U.S. Army in WWI, 1917-1918
Army Art of WWI

My other blogs about this day
Veterans' Day 2006
Uncle Clare
Happy Birthday Marines
Armistice Day, 1918
List of US military conflicts