When I first started watching baseball in the late eighties and the announcers would refer to someone as a "veteran player" I thought that meant the guy was an actual war veteran. At seven or eight years old I didn't have a full grasp on recent American history, but I knew from repeated watchings of First Blood and First Blood Part II that it had been been awhile since the Vietnam War had ended. I kept thinking, "how old are these guys"?
Childhood misconceptions aside, there's a big difference between a veteran ballplayer and actual veteran. While the former get the attention and the adulation, today is a day to honor latter, a group that makes far bigger sacrifices and gets far less credit for what they do.
Veterans Day falls on November 11th because of Armistice Day, which initially commemorated the cessation of fighting on the Western front in the first World War "on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" - hence our 11:00 AM post this morning.
We all know someone who is or was in the military: family, friends, former classmates. I'm sure we have some military personnel amongst our readership here as well. So from Fack Youk to all military past and present, thank you.
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