Veteran’s Day is next Wednesday, November 11. There are several events in town to commemorate the day. There will be a “Community Walk” down Greenwich Avenue in honor of our veterans sponsored by the Greenwich Military Covenant of Care. The walk begins at the corner of Amogerone Way and the Avenue at 9:30 a.m. and proceeds to the Vietnam Memorial in front of the Board of Education building, where several Vietnam War veterans will speak. In fact, the entire walk is meant to convey a heartfelt “thank you” and “welcome home” to those from town who served in the Vietnam War. More than 50 will be walking, along with veterans from other conflicts.
The Veteran of Foreign Wars, Cos Cob Post 10112 will hold a brief ceremony at 10:30 a.m. honoring all veterans who have served and sacrificed in the defense of our country, at the Cos Cob Veteran’s Memorial Park on Strickland Road.
At 11 a.m. sharp, our American Legion Post 29 will hold its annual Veteran’s Day wreath laying and 21-gun salute at the war memorial in front of Restoration Hardware. You should make time to attend these events to honor all who have served our nation, to defend and protect our freedoms.
The time of the wreath laying—11 o’clock sharp—is significant. The armistice that ended the fighting of the “war to end all wars” went into effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 – 97 years ago. For many years we celebrated “Armistice Day” and eventually, after a Second World War and the Korean War, congress acted to make November 11 Veterans Day in recognition of all veterans who served during times of war.
Talk to a veteran today and you are likely to speak with someone who does not want to recognize their military service above that of someone else who served. They will tell you that they were called to go forward because of a “love of country,” or that they were “one more guy with a rifle who answered the call to serve their country and protect all that we hold sacred.” They describe themselves as a cog in a wheel. They are, to a person, modest. When they are identified as a veteran at an event and asked to stand, they often do so reluctantly. They do not seek that accolade for themselves. They do stand, but they stand to honor all who served. Our veterans are part of a continuous line of patriots who first picked up a rifle to fight for freedom in 1775 and who will stand the line in the future to protect our freedoms.
On Wednesday, we will see our veterans. We already see them every day without knowing it. They walk among us, but because of their modesty we do not necessarily identify them as veterans. There is no firm number of how many residents are veterans. Looking at census data and making some assumptions, we know there could be as many as 4,000 people living in Greenwich who have put themselves into harm’s way for their country.
What you will not see are our future veterans, those currently serving in the military. There are more serving currently from Greenwich than you might think. From one church in town alone, there are seven people serving, including two brothers. They epitomize what it is to be a citizen soldier and there should be more of them. The more people that are touched by someone who serves the more we, as a community and country, have at stake. It ensures that when we go to war, we are not making that decision lightly. Our own United States Senator Richard Blumenthal has two sons with military service, one is currently active duty and one is a reservist. He has a lot at stake when he considers votes that could possibly lead to military intervention down the road.
Democracy is not democracy without citizenship, and citizenship requires service back to your community and your country. Veterans understand that service better than most and as a result they look out for one another and share a special bond. Whether they stood on the same battlefield together or served in different parts of the world at different times, there is a unique brotherhood and sisterhood that only they share. As one veteran recently said: “If you are a vet, you are part of my herd. I protect my herd.”
We should all take time Wednesday morning to gather and thank those who were willing to lay down their lives for us. They answered the call to serve their country. Some may have done so reluctantly when the cause was less than clear; and we, as a community and country, did not always support their service and sacrifice as we should have. Wednesday is an opportunity to pause and reflect on those who put their own dreams and ambitions on hold to protect our freedoms. It is an opportunity to offer our thanks for their service and to say, if we’ve been late in doing so, “We’re glad you’re home.”
