On the eleventh hour or the eleventh day of the eleventh month…

That was when, in 1918, the fighting ceased in WWI.

It started as Armistice Day…The recognition of WWI Veterans at the time the war to end all wars…Ended.

Over the years and the decades, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month came to be a day of recognition for all veterans of the United States military.

Today is that day.

There are those, thankfully few and far between, who can’t for the lives of them bring themselves to honor our veterans, and shame on them.

They are the most ignorant of fools and the most foolish of the ignorant.

They are of the ilk bent on burning the flag to make their statements and far, far too knot-headed to realize that those for whom they display their disdain are the very reason they have the right to do so.

To hell with the fools and the ignorant.

Today…

We remember the heroes.

It matters not where they served.

In Europe, Italy, Africa…In Korea or the jungles of Vietnam.

They served in the deserts and the mountains of the Middle East and some served in places so covert that to this day, only they know of it.

Our Veterans served from the day this nation was but an idea to this very day.

They served in battlefields with names like Porkchop Hill, the Ardennes, The Buldge…Iwo…Pearl…and Batan.

Gettysburg, Antitum and Yorktown and Valley Forge.

It doesn’t matter where they served.

They served.

That’s what counts.

It matters not when they served either.

Our Veterans served in times of war and in times of peace and either way, their service mattered.

Truly, without those who served in the cold war, we wouldn’t be the free nation we are today.

Regardless of when or where, our Veterans share a common bond.

They left the safety and security of their homes and their families and they wore the uniform of our nation. They put themselves at risk and many never came home.

They, our veterans, stood for something much greater than the political whims of those in a seat of temporary power.

They stood for the principles of the founders and framers, that all men have the right to be free and they defended that right for those here at home and others abroad.

Was the fight always just?

Was it always right?

Did those who serve always volunteer to go?

No.

Not always but, in there service, we find something greater than shifting winds the times.

We find honor and bravery that transcends the moment history dealt them.

Those who served with honor deserve our respect.

They deserve or gratitude and our thanks.

Our Veterans gave much more than their time and the sweat of their brows. They gave much more than their arms and their legs.

Many…Too many…Gave their minds and their futures to keep us free.

We owe to our Veterans much, MUCH more than we can ever, EVER repay and for far too many, the respect they are due is long OVER due.

Today, we can pay our respects to those who either gave their all on countless fields of battle or survived their wars and have been lost over the years since when we see their gleaming white headstones in cemeteries across the nation and on foreign shores.

Those who still survive have had their wars set in marble and bronze and granite where they gather to remember those who never made it back.

Our veterans leading up to and including those from WWI are all gone now but, their descendants keep their service alive in the stories passed down through the generations.

Those who served in times of peace tell their stories without statues and memorials to mark their service but those stories are important too and should never be dismissed.

We are losing our Veterans from WWII and Korea now but, still…They come to their memorials to remember, renew old friendships and share what only they truly know how to share between one another.

And, at the Vietnam Wall, those who were perhaps the most disrespected upon their return to the world, gather to find the names of those whom they will never forget, etched in the granite for all time.

They also now find the respect too many decades missing from their service.

As surely as time marches on, there will be more statues, more memorials and more names and those Veterans who come to those places today or in the future will share something else.

The symbol of freedom for which and under which they served.

The flag.

Regardless of their age or station in life, they salute it.

They salute it with their hands and, more importantly, with their hearts.

Those who served with honor shun the title but, they ARE heroes.

And so too are their families for service in the military is never done alone.

Today…On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we will celebrate Veterans Day but…Our respect for those who served, whenever and wherever they served, is due at every hour of every day of every month…Of every year for…

Were it not for them…Our Veterans…We would not be free.