Welcome, Home … And a Job Damn Well Done
Gideon D. Asche

On Monday the 11th,  most of us will take time out to celebrate Veterans Day – Not to be confused with Memorial Day; Veterans Day rarely falls on a weekend.  I’m always a little confused when Memorial Day, the day we remember our fallen, turns into a weekend party.

I realize it’s the chronological nature of the holiday; the fact it always creates a 3-day weekend is what makes it so conducive to drunken beach revelry… but just considering the nature of the holiday, it would make sense for it to be a little more somber and sober. Don’t get me wrong; most memorial days the prospect of catching me in “Adult Mode” or anyplace other than on the lake with an adult beverage… is very low.

Veterans Day is a different Story –The American version of Veterans Day is a celebration of the exploits, valor, and even dumbassery exhibited by those who served this great republic.

Drunken forays into public places accompanied by the sounds of slurred patriotic songs, unintentional spillage and stories that all begin with “No Shit; there I wuz…” or “You ain’t gonna believe this shit… “  –  are completely appropriate on Veterans Day.

Veterans Day is a time to share our experiences, revel in our victories and mourn our losses.  Do I need to remind you that we are the only nation on earth to adopt a drinking song as our National Anthem?

SING IT with pride!   

On Veterans Day we celebrate military service.   We give props to those who were willing to take that oath – regardless of where they went or what job they performed.  Taking the oath is in itself an Act of Valor worth toasting.

Veterans Day started with the end of World War One, a “war to end all wars and make the world safe for Democracy” as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson described it.

Originally called Armistice Day; Veterans Day is celebrated by the majority of the civilized world, or at least what was the civilized world in 1918. Crown nations call it “Remembrance Day” and it is standard in European nations to observe 2 minutes of silence at 1100hrs on November 11^th.  In Germany, the Fasching season (Octoberfest) starts 9 minutes and 11 seconds later.  At 11:11.11hrs on November 11^th.  Even Latvia celebrates Nov. 11^th as the day Latvian Partisans kicked Russian ass in the “Great War.”

The First World War officially ended on June 28^th, 1919, but hostilities ceased by armistice months earlier on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the prior year.   (European leaders have a historical propensity for incorporating weirdness and odd symbolism into their capitulations.)

Senior Commanders were informed that the shooting was to stop on November 11^th, 1918, at 1100hrs.  They called it the war to end all wars because most world leaders truly believed we had become so destructive and brutal that no one would ever risk such a war again.

A dark note to the end of this terrible war is many senior officers on both sides were under the same errant impression of there being a flicker of good, hiding down deep somewhere in humanity.  They were afraid they would never again get the opportunity to shine in battle.

Instead of sitting tight and not risking the lives of their troops, opposing commanders sent out combat patrols in the hours before the ceasefire resulting in pointless loss of good soldiers on both sides.  On the upside; most of the world decided to declare November 11^th a celebration.  It is a universal party in the majority of places you or I might choose to vacation.

I can’t write an article without including some sort of useless information so here are a few Veterans Day related facts:

• It’s Veterans Day (plural) – not Veteran’s Day.
• Frank Buckles, the last U.S. World War I Vet, Died in 2011 at the ripe old age of 110. He not only served in WWI, but he was also a civilian POW of the Japanese for 3 years during WW2.
• 33% of all living veterans served during Viet Nam – 7.8 million
• 2 million Veterans are over the age of 65.
• 9 million Veterans are under the age of 35.
• 8 million Veterans are women.
• More veterans served during the Gulf Wars than WWII and Korea combined. (Gulf war service is from Aug. 2, 1990, to present).   Almost 6 million of you took the oath.
• 6 million Veterans served during World War II (1941-1945).
• 8 million veterans served during the Korean War (1950-1953).
• Over 6 million veterans served in peacetime..
• There are 5 states can boast having more than 1 million veterans: California, Florida, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania. California has the most with almost 3 million.
• In 1954, the name of the holiday was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.
• In 1968, the Uniform Holidays Bill was passed by Congress changing  Veterans day to the 4th Monday of October.
• In 1975 President Ford returned Veterans Day to November 11.
• Veterans Day is the only non-religious holiday we share with other nations.

Unlike Memorial Day, Veterans Day is a celebration of life… A time to remember the actions and exploits of those who led the way and stood in the gap for liberty; the ones who lived to tell about it as well as those who freely gave that full measure.

Personally, I don’t say “Thank You” to veterans simply because it makes me feel funny to have some stranger thank me for serving, but I remember a day, in about 1967 or 68, that I stood proudly with my father as he greeted a group of soldiers deplaning at Travis AFB – Right back from Viet Nam. He greeted each one personally with – “Welcome Home and a JOB DAMN WELL DONE.”

Regardless if you wore OD Green, Khaki, Blue, White, or were one of the ghosts from “The Farm”…  To You I Say…

“WELCOME HOME … AND A JOB DAMN WELL DONE.”

I salute you – I’ll be tipping several in your honor.

Fratribus Sine Pari

– Gid

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LT.  I’ll see you at the East Gate –  You bring the beer and I’ll bring the bullshit.
Sorry that I’m late, but that’s your doing.
I’ll get there. – Just not Today.
– Pumuckle

LT.  I’ll see you at the East Gate –  You bring the beer and I’ll bring the bullshit.
Sorry that I’m late, but I’ll get there.
– Just not Today.

– Gid