Observed on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day honors all military men and women who gave their lives serving their country.
On the other hand, Veterans Day salutes all those—past and present, living and dead—who served in the Armed Forces of the United States. This federal holiday is held annually on Nov. 11, the date in 1918 that saw the end of the fighting of World War I. Originally called Armistice Day, after the armistice that the United States and its allies signed with Germany, the occasion was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.
Though this occasion is aimed particularly at those living men and women who are either serving or have served in our military, on Veterans Day we, in fact, throw a salute to all those 41 million Americans who, in the past 248 years, fought in our wars or guarded our country in peacetime. Most of these were citizen-soldiers rather than professionals, some of them carried no weapons at all, and others were famous for achievements far from a parade ground or a battlefield.
Here are a few of their stories.
The Angels
With the fall of Manila, Bataan, and Corregidor in 1942 to the Japanese, 11 Navy nurses and 66 Army nurses fell into the hands of these invaders. After being assigned to internment camps, these women helped to set up hospitals for thousands of prisoners and spent the rest of the war tending to the sick and the wounded. They oversaw the sanitation in these camps, at least as much as their captors allowed, and despite limited supplies and medications, kept alive a multitude of people who would otherwise have died. All 77 nurses survived this ordeal.
Known as “the Angels of Bataan and Corregidor,” they received little recognition for their heroic efforts upon their liberation, in part because of the ongoing chaos of the war. Today, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans remembers them in its archives and with a special exhibit.
Hurrah for Hollywood
Entertainers have a long history of performing for those in uniform. Some, such as Bob Hope or the “GI Nightingale” Frances Langford, were well-known for their dedication to boosting morale by putting on shows for the troops abroad, particularly in wartime.
Many others have stepped into the ranks. During World War II, Clark Gable enlisted in the Army Air Corps and saw action as a machine gunner on a bomber. Elvis Presley was drafted into the Army when he was already a major rock-and-roll star and willingly served out his term as an enlisted man. Air Force enlistee Johnny Cash bought his first guitar while stationed in Germany. Army draftee Clint Eastwood might never have achieved stardom as an actor and a director except for his service. While volunteering as a lifeguard at Fort Ord, California, he came to the attention of Hollywood, took some acting lessons, and soon won a role in the television series “Rawhide.”
The most inspiring of these forays from the entertainment world into the military belongs to actor Jimmy Stewart. After winning the 1940 Oscar for Best Actor for “The Philadelphia Story,” Stewart joined the Army Air Corps just before the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Here, he was following a long family tradition of military service, extending back to the American Revolution. Stewart entered service as a private, rose to the rank of colonel, flew 20 combat missions, and received two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the French Croix de Guerre. Later, his stepson Ronald would give his life in service in Vietnam.
Like many other veterans who have faced intense combat and survived, Stewart lost many men in his command, felt enormous guilt for having survived, and suffered from what we today call PTSD. When his parents saw him for the first time after the war, they “were shocked by what they saw—their boy had aged what seemed decades.”
Stewart carried his rage and sorrow into his next film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Watch the scene in which he goes ballistic in front of his family, and you’ll see it.
The Splendid Splinter
Like Jimmy Stewart, and as with many other major league baseball players, Ted “The Splendid Splinter” Williams put aside his bat and glove during World War II and ended up instructing Marine Corps pilots.
Unlike any of these ball players, however, Williams was called back to the Marines during the Korean conflict, serving this time as a fighter pilot. He flew 39 combat missions, during which time his aircraft was damaged three times by enemy fire. Once, he landed his plane when it was ablaze from being hit. Future astronaut John Glenn, who served in the same squadron as Williams, recollected: “He slid it in on [its] belly. It came up the runway about 1,500 feet before he was able to jump out and run off the wingtip. Much as I appreciate baseball, Ted to me will always be a Marine fighter pilot.”
After this second stint with the USMC, Williams returned to the diamond and played seven more full seasons. In 1966, he entered the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Other athletes have served their country in uniform: boxers such as Joe Lewis, baseball players such as Warren Spahn and Jackie Robinson, and football star Roger Staubach. Buffalo Bills 1968 Rookie of the Year Bob Kalsu lost his life during a mortar attack in Vietnam, and after 9/11, Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman walked away from the gridiron to enlist in the Army. He died in 2004 in the mountains of Afghanistan, a victim of friendly fire.
Shaking Hands With Ghosts
On Veterans Day we salute all those who served in the armed forces of the United States. (Biba Kayewich)
One of the customs of Veterans Day is to thank the men and women in our communities who have served our nation as members of the armed forces. This year, when we offer a handshake and a word of appreciation, we should remember that behind that veteran are millions of others, most of them long gone to the grave, whose deeds and sacrifices helped win and preserve our freedom. A few of these were celebrities, yes, but a vast majority were ordinary citizens, farmers and shopkeepers, students and clerks, factory workers and pencil pushers.
They were the shoeless men who gutted out a winter at Valley Forge. They were the soldiers who fought and bled at Antietam, Gettysburg, and Chickamauga. They were the sailors who manned the ships at Mobile Bay and faced German submarines during the Battle of the Atlantic, the pilots who defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Midway and so reversed the course of the Pacific War, the Marines who charged onto lethal islands with strange-sounding names such as Guadalcanal, Saipan, and Okinawa.
They were the doughboys who helped defeat the Germans in France in 1917 and the GIs who did it again in 1944. They are the grunts who slogged through the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam and patrolled the plains, mountains, and deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are legion, and their watchword is “liberty.”
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make The Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
