American Minute with Bill Federer:
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, in the year 1918, World War I ended.
Though the Armistice was signed at five-o'clock that morning, fighting continued till eleven o'clock, killing nearly 11,000 more men.
In 1921, President Warren Harding had the remains of an unknown soldier killed in France buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.
Inscribed on the Tomb are the words: "Here lies in honored glory an American soldier know but to God." Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor all American Veterans.
In 1958, President Eisenhower placed soldiers from WWII and the Korean War in the tomb.
The soldier from Vietnam, buried by President Reagan in 1984, was identified by DNA tests as pilot Michael Blassie and was reburied in Jefferson Memorial Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri in 1998.
On November 11, 1921, President Harding stated:
"On the threshold of eternity, many a soldier, I can well believe, wondered how his ebbing blood would color the stream of human life, flowing on after his sacrifice...I can sense the prayers of our people...Let me join in that prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven..."
I am forever humbled by those that have given their lives, and those that lay their lives on the line in the defense of freedom and liberty, wherever that battle might be fought.
