Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day to all of those veterans and active members of our United States Military.

We spent a wonderful morning preparing and then participating in a Veterans Day Parade here in Apache Junction, but more on that in a bit. I first want to give a very brief history of Veterans Day.

Originally called Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, it was first incorporated in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson. It was created in honor of the signing of the Armistice Treaty which ended World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month. Two years later on Armistice Day, an unknown WWI soldier was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In 1938 Armistice Day became an official National American Holiday. The year after Armistice Day became a National Holiday, WWII broke out in Europe. The start of WWII ended our hopes that WWI was "the war to end all wars". Over four hundred thousand America troops died in World War II.

After the Korean War (during which 36,000 Americans died) Congress felt that veterans of all wars should be recognized so in 1954 they changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. President Eisenhower signed the bill proclaiming the holiday a remembrance of all wars and changing the name to Veterans Day.

Veterans Day celebrations now take place across this wonderful country of ours. The people of Apache Junction have their own Veterans Day parade, which includes inviting the local ROTC cadets from all branches of the military and inviting members of the the local American Legion to participate. We rode with the American Legion Riders for this event. The Parade included local school bands and drill teams, the Model T club from Mesa were also in attendance. I know I am being pretty vague about who was in the parade, but since we were staging, I really didn't have an opportunity to visit all of the others in the parade.

At 9:30 we had the presentation of colors, and immediately after that we had a flyover by two F-15's from Luke Air Force Base. I would hazard a guess that the pilots of those two F-15's heard the crowd applaud and yell their greetings. It was an awe-inspiring sight to see.

As we were staging in the pre-dawn hours today, we had the great honor and pleasure to meet Army Lieutenant Colonel Margaret "Maggie" DeSanti. She has recently retired from the Army and is one of the most vibrant people I have met. Her tour of duty included service in Vietnam, 1968, 1969 and she served during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Maggie had several fun stories to tell about her time in the service, and was a great source of information regarding her service. What she didn't discuss (we found out from one of her friends) was that she lost a daughter in the Twin Towers during 9-11. Her daughter was a waitress in one of the towers when it was hit. Maggie does not appear to be the kind of person who will dwell on things she cannot change, she is very focused on the here and now.

It was really great to see Maggie prior to the beginning of the parade going around to greet the various ROTC groups and spend some time talking with each of them. When she went to greet the Army ROTC, they all stood at attention and saluted her. That must have been a great thrill for those cadets to be greeted by a Lieutenant Colonel. Maggie does not appear to be one to take any 'guff' from anyone. Her handshake would put most men to shame, she is very active and in no way planning on drifting into retirement quietly. I feel honored that she spent time talking with me, a mere civilian, but she did have a good amount of fun teasing Steve, the Marine, who in the pre-dawn (and pre-coffee) hours did not see her uniform correctly. Steve first believe Maggie to be a Lieutenant (he claims he didn't see her shoulder boards...ha..) and then he believed her to be part of the Navy (again, he thought her uniform was blue, not black...). He just kept digging deeper until Maggie finally let him off the hook. Since Maggie was a Nurse, she actually helped all branches of the Military, and she has fond memories of some Marines she came in contact with.

What really touched me was all of the people lining the streets of Apache Junction, waving flags, little children holding up signs that say Thank You, and everyone waving. It was a wonderful day for a parade and everyone seems to have really enjoyed themselves. I am already looking forward to next year.

Until tomorrow...