At 11 minutes past the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month . . . the guns fell silent on the Western Front.  The First World War (known as the “Great War” then) had come to a close.  But not an end, because only years later would the Second World War bring to some kind of closure the wrenching changes reshaping Europe – and the world.  Even today, in places like Kosovo, the upheaval still plays out like the aftershocks of some nationalistic earthquake.  The tremors will be felt for many years to come.

In London today, on their Remembrance Day, as the pipes join in playing Nimrod by Elgar, the Brits will solemnly mark the devastation that “the war to end all wars” brought to their tiny isles.  They will remember those who served and died and those who remain from all the conflicts.  They will weep again with the families and communities still bearing the scars of a deep wound still healing today.  And like some national wound that is constantly being disturbed, the wars of today send home the coffins, the wounded, the lame and the deeply disturbed of those who still go off to fight in desolate places.  Only duty and honor can serve to give meaning to these veterans and their families who sacrifice so much of their lives in pain and gut-wrenching fear.  Politics has no answers.

Here in the United States times have changed.  Veterans’ Day is a celebration of those who have served and serve today.  It wasn’t always so.  Many in the service in my generation, the Baby Boomers, came back from fighting in conflicts in Southeast Asia to find a nation ambivalent about their sacrifice.  They were sometimes reviled for the horrors of war which, for the first time, were seen daily on the evening news.  For those not standing in a jungle, fighting to stay alive, the images were too much to bear.  There was a new disconnect between those who had experienced the wartime commitment to comrades and cause, and those who, revolted by constant images of war, took up the anti-war protests.  And often, regrettably, these protests were directed at the men and women sent by their country to fight.  Our nation’s growing disdain for hawkish political leaders transferred to the soldiers and sailors.  But times did change.

Post-9-11 we see the military in a different light.  It is much closer to home now – this threat of destruction which elicits an armed response.  And while we may still question national leaders who hasten to war on flimsy pretexts, our experiences since Vietnam teach us that soldiers serve for different reasons.  Duty to country, to family and a personal sense of honor will motivate a man or woman to join the military.  But only the duty and commitment to those who serve together will motivate someone to cross a field of fire, to risk life and limb, to fall on a grenade, or share endless hours in frozen fear.  Men and women will only die in service for those they serve with.  It is this bond, consistent down through the history of war, that pervades the celebration of Veterans’ Day.  And it is the recognition of the service they give to us, the sacrifices they make for each other, and the benefits we all receive from that service that moves us on this day.

So Veterans’ Day, or Remembrance Day, binds all of us together in a human bond that is inscrutable.  Those who serve and have served know a special bond of comradeship that transcends everyday human relations.  Only great danger and commitment to country and honor can forge such bonds.  Veterans remember those bonds today.  For the rest of us we see more clearly today than before the nobleness of our fellow citizens who have answered the call to high service to country and their fellow man.  We have grown to appreciate their sacrifices.  We can all celebrate together.