Veterans Day ﾗ a time to remember and honor
The official time and date of Veterans Day is the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month and, for the first time, it will also be the 11th year.
A temporary cessation of hostilities between the Allies and Germany was declared at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, the beginning of the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, bringing "The Great War" to an official end.
President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day on November 11, 1919.
"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the county's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations," Wilson wrote.
Some of the most horrific battles of World War I were fought in the fields of Flanders.
When Colonel John McCrae penned "In Flanders Fields" in 1915, he could not have fathomed how the words of that poem's final verse would echo through the years.
"Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from falling hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
It ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep though poppies grow
In Flanders fields."
World War I claimed millions of casualties and was referred to as "the war to end all wars."
But wars have not ceased.
Since the inception of Armistice Day in 1919, which became Veterans Day in 1954 by a stroke ofﾠ President Dwight D.ﾠ Eisenhower's pen, men and women have been called from their homeland to serve in World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places.
Countless lives have been lost, and as many have been changed. The sacrifices of our military have sustained stability for this nation and allowed us to live in relative peace.
November 11 is a day to honor these men and women.
Members of the Pocahontas County Honor Corps will gather for a ceremony honoring this county's fallen veterans at Mountain View Cemetery in Marlinton on Friday, November 11, at 10:30 a.m.
The ceremony will be held at the flag poles, which fly the stars and stripes, the colors of each branch of the military as well as the MIA flag.
There are between 550 and 600 veterans buried in Mountain View.
"It's difficult to count," said Kenneth Faulknier, caretaker of those graves. "Several are not marked."
Faulknier takes pride in his work there and feels the community needs to know that based on per-capita, Mountain View has more soldiers interred than any other cemetery in West Virginia.
Bill Lambert, Vice Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars will speak at Friday's event, along with a representative of the American Legion.
The 10:30 a.m. ceremony is scheduled to accommodate another tradition - a free meal for veterans and their families to begin at 11 a.m. at the Dunmore Community Center.
Since 1999 the Pocahontas County Honor Corps has raised funds to provide a dinner for this county's veterans and their families.
About seven years ago the event settled into what appears to be its permanent home at the Dunmore center. The community center is offered without charge for this event, and in addition, the center has made monetary donations toward the meal.
The Honor Corps, with the help of several ladies in the area, "cook it, serve it and clean it up," said corps member Jerry Taylor, of Dunmore.
The Honor Corps will be busy in the days leading up to Veterans Day. They are visiting the county schools to provide patriotic education sessions to the students.
They recently donated 19 flags - one for each classroom - to the Green Bank Middle/Elementary School.ﾠ It's a gift the corps intends to make to all the classrooms in the county.
In addition to the patriotic presentation, history students are encouraged to interview the veterans, who carry with them pictures and other memorabilia of their time in service to this country.
Donations to the corps' flag program are welcome.
Welcomed, as well, would be a large turnout for the short Veterans Day ceremony at Mountain View on Friday, November 11, at 10:30 a.m. to honor the veterans whoﾠgave years of their lives, and in many cases their very lives, for the benefit of all.