Hip Hip Hooray for Our Veterans!

Our family vacation last month to San Diego made me appreciate our veterans more than ever!  We toured the USS Midway, a Navy aircraft-carrier-now-museum docked in the bay right next to the city's downtown high-rises.

The proud veterans who were conducting tours on the USS Midway were quick to answer any questions we had.  I gained a new appreciation for the sacrifices so many made on our country's behalf.

It was quite sobering to see the tight quarters (many of which I was too claustrophobic to enter!) where the men ate, slept, and lived during the years this huge carrier - really a "city on the sea" - was in service.  

Why November 11th?  A quick history of Veteran's Day:
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as "the Great War." Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars. [source]

Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor America's war dead. Veterans Day, on the other hand, honors all American veterans - both living and dead - but especially those veterans sill living who served our country and sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Books for Veteran's Day:
The USS Midway had a great little giftshop - I immediately headed over to the kids' area with my daughter and grandson.  Of course, there were quite a few books...

We ended up buying a little sailor hat and the board book, My First Counting Book: *NAVY*, for my grandson.

"6 jets perform with amazing precision."

The last page of this little board book says it all:

HURRAY!

You just counted from 1 to 10!

HURRAH!

For the Navy's brave women and men!

Let's give a big

thank you

for all that they do, to keep our country

safe

for me and for you!

Another good read for Veteran's Day, for older children: 
The House of Sixty Fathers (click on the title to go to my past post).