Veteran's Day...What is a veteran & honor? (Out of the mouths of Babes!)

A bit of history for you....Veteran's Day, originally known as Armistice Day was originally set on Nov. 11, 1918 to mark the end of WWI.  **NOTE**my Grammie was just about 2 yrs old at that time!!!  (Armistice by definition means temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement between the opponents, or truce).  In 1938 legislation was passed and November 11 was dedicated to the cause of world peace and this legal holiday was designated to honor Veterans of WWI.    Nearly two decades passed and we had fought in WWII & The Korean War, so in 1954 they amended the act of 1938 by striking out the word Armistice and replacing it with the word Veterans.  On June 1, 1954, November 11 became a day to honor Veterans of all wars.

So, I thought it would be interesting to interview my four children (ages, 5,6,10 & 13) to see just what they thought Veteran's Day meant.  The answers I got were quite humorous, and it went a little something like this:
(ps--now they know WHAT Veteran's Day is and WHY we celebrate it.)

The kid interview:
Question #1 So do you know what it means to be a Veteran?
Mack - Spring Break (what?  I don't know where he was going with that)
Steph- A veteranerian
Lauren-Someone who's in the military
Allie-Someone in the armed forces

OK, so the answers keep getting better with age **whew!**  There is hope for my  kids!  Steph's answers was priceless though...I was liking where this was going.

So, I explained to them about the different branches of the military and what they do, and told them that a Veteran is anyone of those men or women who have served our country. 

Question #2  What is honor?
Mack- saying you can come in
Steph-to help somebody
Lauren-to thank or praise someone
Allie-recognize, tell them good job, appreciate

I then took a moment to explain how we honor people.  We honor someone when it's their birthday by celebrating them and we make them a cake and sing Happy Birthday, etc...  Then I talked about honoring your parents (gotta get that in wherever I can....teachable moments, people!)  I said that obeying the first time  and talking respectfully are ways to honor your parents.  I felt I could get off on a tangent here, so I decided to stay on topic! 

Question #3  How could you show honor to a Veteran?
Mack- (bear with me here...I wrote it as he said it...so it's a little hard to follow at times) It's their birthday and you just 'appreciation' someone....it means they are really really really happy because they did that stuff for appreciation. (that's a 5 yr old talking here.)  You have to pledge them to do it, when they died you have to do something really special for them like when Great Grammie Joy died we prayed for her.  (he remembers us praying for her when she was sick!  Wow!)  The guys at war have to kill the bad guys so our country won't die. We pledge to the ones that we love.  (he rattled all that off in about 10 seconds flat!)
Steph-  To pray for them and pledge to the flag, and being good to others
Lauren- You can celebrate what a good job they did, say thank you for serving in the war and thank you for fighting for our country's freedom.
Allie- I would thank them for their service, and for putting their life on the line for all of us.

Well there you have it folks!  My kids now understand what it means to be a Veteran.  Since Rick and I are not in the military they don't see it first hand like so many other military families, I  really wanted to drive home to them exactly what it is that they do for us.  (Even I cannot totally understand what it must really be like to have your husband deploy for a year! I'm such a wimp, I get sad over a few days!)  We have military family members who are actually deployed at the moment (a shout out to Carlos, Erika & family!) and who are serving overseas (shout out to James, PattyAnn, and family!) And I have many friends who are in the military, or their spouse (or both...shout out to Tracey & Billy & family!) and I wanted to take a moment to honor all of them and all of the others who put their lives on the line for all of us.  We love you and we honor you today and every day!  Thank you for your dedication and service!

Here are a few interesting facts in case you wondered or not:

• The shortest war on record took place in 1896 when Zanzibar surrendered to Britain after 38 minutes.

• The longest was the so-called 100-years war between Britain and France. It actually lasted 116 years, ending in 1453.

• Since 1495, no 25-year period has been without war.