Veterans Day 2018 – Bells to ring 100 years after the end of WWI

(by Carlos M. Vazquez II, Stars and Stripes) – Bells will ring out on military bases and in communities all over the world on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month to mark 100 years since the end of World War I.

People can observe the centenary of the conflict’s end by joining Bells of Peace — a Veterans Day event also happening at churches, universities, cemeteries, ships at sea and war memorials worldwide.

Bells will toll 21 times at 11 a.m. Sunday in all time zones — exactly 100 years since the armistice that ended the Great War — to honor the 4.7 million Americans who served and 116,516 who died in the conflict, according to the event’s sponsor, the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission. [The 21 tolls of the bell symbolize the nation’s highest honor.  It is based on the 21-gun salute.]

“Two million of those men and women deployed overseas to the fight,” said Chris Isleib, a spokesman for the commission.

The goal is to enlist “the whole nation in the commemoration of the service of our WWI veterans,” said Betsy Anderson, who is coordinating Bells of Peace on behalf of the commission.

Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer has ordered bells tolled on warships and installations, and military leaders from other branches have similar plans.

The Navy hopes the commemoration gives sailors “a sense of pride in their heritage and an understanding of the importance of the shipmates who have gone before them,” Alex Hays, a Naval History and Heritage Command spokesman told Stars and Stripes in an email.

As the bells ring, individuals may salute and observe a moment of silence. …

For more detailed information about the event, read the FAQs under “Backround” below the questions, and/or visit the U.S. WWI Centennial Commission website at worldwar1centennial.org.

From stripes .com. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from Stars and Stripes.

VETERANS DAY

In 2010, Marine Lieutenant General John F. Kelly said in a Veterans Day speech:

Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths. The protected can’t begin to understand the price paid so they and their families can sleep safe and free at night. No, they are not victims, but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims, regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make for you.

Like those who went before them in uniform, we owe them everything. We owe them our safety. We owe them our prosperity. We owe them our freedom. We owe them our lives. Any one of them could have done something more self-serving with their lives as the vast majority of their age group elected to do after high school and college, but no, they chose to serve knowing full well a brutal war was in their future. They did not avoid the basic and cherished responsibility of a citizen—the defense of country—they welcomed it. They are the very best this country produces, and have put every one of us ahead of themselves. All are heroes for simply stepping forward, and we as a people owe a debt we can never fully pay.

In his speech, Lt. Gen. Kelly tells the story of the bravery of two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter in Ramadi, Iraq.  Read the speech (and find links to the video) at:  whatsoproudlywehail.org