Veteran's Day November 11, 2009 -- Pray for our Veterans and our Country

November 11, 1918, at 11 AM, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, WWI was ended with the signing of the Armistice.

November 11th became known from that day forward as Armistice Day celebrating our veterans of WWI. In 1938 November 11th was recognized as a federal holiday. Following WWII, Congress officially changed the name to Veteran's Day to recognize all of the veterans from all the wars. In 1971, Veterans Day became one of the Monday holidays of the Federal Government moving it to the fourth Monday in October. On November 11th, 1977, Veterans Day was returning to its original date of November 11th.

From our first war as a new Country until today's War on Terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world including on our own soil certain words have been spoken and written that will be remembered through the ages. We need to remember those Veterans of the Revolutionary War who gave their all so we could become a free and independent Country along with all the men and woman who have served in our military throughout our Nation's history.

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Edmund Burke (1729-1797) statement. Burke was a British Statesman and Philosopher who is generally viewed as the philosophical founder of modern political conservatism.

Revolutionary War:

"It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Patrick Henry speaking to the House of Burgesses, April 23, 1775

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776

War of 1812:

"We have met the enemy and they are ours."— Oliver Hazard Perry, 1813

As the wounded Captain James Lawrence was carried below after being mortally wounded in the battle between his ship, the US frigate Chesapeake and the HMS Shannon on 1 June 1813, he ordered "Tell the men to fire faster! Don't give up the ship!"

Mexican-American War (1846-1848):

Polk sent to Congress declaring that the Mexicans had "invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil". This led to the Declaration of War against Mexico on May 13, 1846.

Civil War:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863, The Gettysburg Address

Spanish-American War:

"Remember the Maine" became the battlelecry of the United States Military Forces in 1898

WWI:

A poem that was used to describe the war was written by a Canadian doctor who was on the battlefield:

In Flanders Fields By:
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead.
Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

WWII:

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan...As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense...With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God."
President F.D. Roosevelt - 8th December 1941

Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.!
Admiral Halsey - December 1941

"No amphibious attack in history had approached this one in size. Along miles of coastline there were hundreds of vessels and small boats afloat and ant-like files of advancing troops ashore."
General Dwight Eisenhower - July 1943 (Sicily)

"Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!"
General George S. Patton - (addressing to his troops before Operation Overlord) - 5th June 1944)

"Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely"
General Dwight Eisenhower - 6th June 1944

”Let the indomitable spirit of Bataan and Coregidor lead on…In the name of your sacred dead, strike! Let no heart be faint. Let every arm be steeled.”
General Douglas MacArthur – On the beach at Palo, broadcasting his return – 24th October 1944

"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."
James Forrestal - Secretary of the Navy - 23rd February 1945

Picture of the first flag raised that morning:



The second flag raised on Mount Suribachi which was sent around the World:



Korean War:

"[Korea is] the clearest test case that the United Nations has ever faced. If the United Nations is ever going to do anything, this is the time, and if the United Nations cannot bring the crisis in Korea to an end, then we might as well wash up the United Nations and forget it."
Senator Tom Connally, of Texas, summing up Congressional opinion of the Korean crisis three days after the invasion.

Vietnam War:

We should declare war on North Vietnam. . . .We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.
--Ronald Reagan, 1965

Let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.
--Richard M. Nixon, 1969

Desert Storm:

"A line has been drawn in the sand...Withdraw from Kuwait unconditionally and immediately, or face the terrible consequences."
George Bush

"Allah is on our side. That is why we will beat the aggressor."
Saddam Hussein
December 12, 1990

"As I report to you, air attacks are under way against military targets in Iraq...I've told the American people before that this will not be another Vietnam. And I repeat this here tonight. Our troops will have the best possible support in the entire world, and they will not be asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back."
President George Bush Address to the nation. January 16, 1991

"Our strategy to go after the Army is very, very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we're going to kill it."
General Colin L. Powell, USA
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, news conference, January 23, 1991

"If anyone tells you America's best days are behind her, they're looking the wrong way."
George Bush, January 28, 1991

9/11/2001 -- America is attacked:

War came to America on September 11th 2001 with an attack on NY and Washington. Not since the Battle of Antietem had so many Americans perished in a day.

“Terrorism against our nation will not stand.”
- George W. Bush – Remarks at Emma Booker Elementary School. Sarasota, Florida

“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “
- President George W. Bush, December 11, 2001

"Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger.
--George W. Bush

As the representatives of the people we are here to declare that our resolve has not been weakened by these horrific and cowardly acts.
--Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle

We're going to find out who did this and we're going after the bastards.
--Sen. Orrin Hatch

"You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy."
--Colin Powell



Operation Enduring Freedom:

" We will not relent until the terror networks that threaten us are exposed and broken"
President Bush

"We did not ask for this global struggle, we are answering history's call"
President Bush

"I gave them a fair warning"
-President George w. Bush,
Oct. 8 when deciding on military action against the Taliban

"These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of America's
resolve."
-President George W. Bush

"We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the
worst threats before they emerge."
-President George W. Bush
to graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in June 2002

"What our enemies have begun, we will finish,"
- President George W. Bush
in his address to the nation on September 11, 2002.

Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier.
Zell Miller (D) Georgia 2004

For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.
Zell Miller (D) Georgia 2004

Iraq War:

"Let's go."
Those were the words uttered by President Bush to Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, at 7:12 p.m. EST Wednesday 19. march 2003, that authorized the United
States to begin war with Iraq

"this will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome
except victory."
- President George Bush, addressing the nation 20.march 2003

Please view the video below about our Freedom that so many men and women over the years have fought to preserve. Pray for our men and women who serve today and for the families that lost soldiers in a terrorist attack on Fort Hood. God Bless America and those who serve in our military.