Saluting the 11th day of the 11th month

Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

The Details

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month came on a Monday in 1918. News coverage reaching the public even the week before included information on battles and casualties even in the very final days of The Great War.

The headline of the Nov. 7, 1918, edition of The Jamestown Alert proclaimed the German army was in a “full retreat from Belgium.” In a smaller headline much farther down the page, it noted the U.S. Army had reported 1,305 casualties in the daily report of Nov. 5.

Of those, 124 were killed in action on the battlefield, 75 died of wounds sustained on the battlefield at field hospitals, and 108 died of disease. The rest, about 1,000 soldiers, were wounded or missing during the day's activities.

The paper also had a brief note that included in that casualty list was a young man from Cayuga, North Dakota, who had died in Europe.

But there were signs that America was looking beyond the war.

An article on the second page noted the aircraft manufacturing companies had made huge profits building the most technologically advanced tool of war. An investigation was already underway, and at least one high-ranking officer was facing court-martial for not watching the aircraft companies closely.

A week later, the biggest headline in the Alert proclaimed “Greatest War in History Ends.”

A smaller headline down the front page asked: “When will we get home?”

That question had no ready answer, although the paper included a notice that all draft notices already issued were revoked, and any soldiers in training in the United States were discharged from the Army.

We honor all veterans on the 11th day of the 11th month. This is an entirely appropriate day to honor the soldiers, sailors and marines of all times who served this country’s military.

The veterans of the Great War fought in the first modern war with the threats of bombs and strafing missions from aircraft and the deadly rumble of tanks and armor rolling across the battlefields.

They even had the added danger of poison gases that have since been outlawed by the international rules of war.

The soldiers of the modern military face dangers that the doughboy of the Great War couldn’t even imagine.

The threat of drones, smart bombs and missiles adds another danger to service.

And veterans who didn’t face combat left their homes and families, willing to confront the enemy and all the horrors of the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the battlefield of tomorrow’s war could bring dangers we cannot even imagine today.

In some respects, it would be best not to think about the dangers any individual soldier faced in service.

It is sufficient to say their time in the military included facing the worst dangers the military minds of that time could create.

Wishing the survivors of those challenges a simple “well done” is the best praise we can offer.

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