Veterans Day honors those who served

Posted November 8, 2007

At the close of World War I, on Nov. 11, 1918, an armistice between the Allied nations and Germany began in the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 the first commemoration of Armistice Day, celebrated with parades, public meetings, and a brief suspension of business at 11 am.

An act approved by Congress in May 1938 made Nov. 11 a legal holiday to be celebrated and known as "Armistice Day," primarily to honor veterans of World War I.

However, with the return of so many veterans after World War II and America's subsequent conflict in Korea, in May 1954, Congress amended the Act of 1938 by replacing the word "Armistice" with "Veterans." In October, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed the first Veterans Day holiday.

The Uniform Holiday Bill signed into law in 1968 included Veterans Day as one of four holidays to be celebrated on Mondays. However, the first Veterans Day, celebrated on Oct. 25, 1971, caused so much confusion and controversy that in 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a public law returning the annual observation of Veterans Day to Nov. 11.

While Veterans Day also honors those who died, it is a day set aside to thank and honor all those who served honorably in the military, in wartime or peacetime.

The following Island veterans died since last November:

Theodore R. Bernard
Stephen E. Braude
Chauncey Lewis Christian, Jr.
Peter Kipp Clough
Walter Leo Cook
J. Walter Dumais
Luke J. Feeney
Wayland Stewart Fuller
Peter E. Guernsey
Raymond P. Houle
Marvin S. Joslow
Lawrence C. Kehoe
Sidney S. Kaufman, MD
Antone V. Lima
Maria Lopes
Donald J. Maguire
Catherine F. Mathiesen
Milton Mazer
Joseph Corrigan Mello
John Moment
Lloyd J. Niederlitz
William J. Nicholson III
John W. Norton
Sherman K. Okun
Henry P. Perrine
Eleanor E. Pilgren
Robert S. Sanborn
Robert H. Sayles
Frederick Schrade
George Perry Silva
Terence D. Sullivan
Horace E. Wadsworth
David L. Welch Sr.
David T. Wells
George L. Wey
Carl A. Whitman
Glenn J. Wilson

(List provided courtesy of Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home)