Veterans day originates to WW1 from armistice day. Here is a recording of when WW1 ended you can hear the guns going to the very end. Then the set time for WW1 ending and the guns go silent then a hour later you hear birds some thing a soldier on a WW1 battle field have not heard in years it's kind of eerie. Thanks for all your service to our veterans on the forum.

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-d...lent-on-armistice-day-marking-the-end-of-wwi/

 

A few pictures from my grandfather:

 

Here are a few from my Grandfather he was in WW1 and WW2 got into US Navy aviation in the beginning.







Here he is holding my Dad in-between wars

Just before he retired after WW2 he moved up better than me when I was in the Navy advancement wise enlisted to chief then officer what we call a mustang in the Navy. He was my Dads div officer on a carrier and my dad did some thing stupid he put my Dad in the brig he was tough never gave brakes. My family like 3-4 generation Navy I guess a family tradition the last talk I had with my Grandmother before she past was stay in the Navy to retire did take her advice even if I finished it up in the reserve instead of active duty.

 

While I come from a large military family, it's always a tale from a friend I think of when I think of Armistice Day.

This very dear, and at this point elderly, friend of mine's father served in WWI. She said she once asked him what it was like, and he wasn't mean about it, but told her (she was in her teens at the time, and her own eventual husband serving in WWII): "You can read all about it in my journal when I die." She went on to tell me, 'So years later when I inherited his belongings I remembered that, and dug out his journal, and while there were many entries dated at times I knew he was on the front, there was only one that said anything about the actual fighting; it said: Got blowed up yesterday. Ears still ringing pretty good, but headache mostly gone.'

Boy did they make'em different back then.

 

Unfortunately despite all my efforts I have little knowledge of my family history and as the years advance it is something I really regret.

My grandfather was gassed in the first world war and discharged only on several occasions to be be presented with a white feather whilst out walking which I do know haunted my grandmother. He unfortunately was not home long before he passed.
The only tangible memory I have,

 

Very impressive. Hard to fathom the difference in technology. I know it was war but that plane is freaking amazing.

Dad's make the worst bosses. Mine was our Scoutmaster. I always got the wettest and dirtiest jobs. No favoritism.

We also come from military roots. Grandfather first and second, Dad Vietnam twice, me Desert Storm. It's the futility of war that seems to be the lingering memory. Good to remember because it's civilians who start wars.

@Alpha, that's a powerful story. We won't know what they went through but in some respect that's probably what they would have wanted. You have enough to honor his memory and your Grandmother's loss. Thanks for sharing his story. Hits home.

 

My Grandfather immigrated from Prussia in 1912 to the United States. He joined the US Army in 1917 and was a member of the cavalry. He fought in WW1, but the cavalry was discontinued as it was obsolete and he transferred to artillery, he was gassed in Belgium. My Grandfather had respiratory issues his whole life, but lived well into his 90s.

When the war ended he was asked to stayed on in Düsseldorf, Germany as a member of the occupation forces because of his fluent German. My Grandfather didn’t talk much about the war, but, he did tell the story of how he had to get out of Düsseldorf fast because two sisters who lived in the house he stayed in at the time were competing for his affection and he had a fiancé back home in Chicago.

My Grandfather’s younger brother fought with the infantry and was killed in October by a sniper one month before the armistice, he was just 19.

My Grandfather’s son, my Dad, fought in the Pacific theater as a Navy aerial gunner flying in the Curtiss Helldiver and the battle of Midway.

My Mother’s father was a Lieutenant during WW1 and was severely wounded by shrapnel and had a metal plate in his head. The pain haunted in for years and he later took his own life. His son, my Uncle, went to West Point
and retired from the military as a Brigadier General after serving in both Korea and Vietnam.

Thank you to all who served.