Veterans Day... The 11th day of the 11th month when the guns fell silent at the War to End All Wars. Those may be just some numbers to some but to many, numbers have been playing an important part of American history.
veteranThere's 1776, 1865, 1918, 1941, 1950, 1975, 1990, 9/11 just to name a few.
Veterans Day is all about those numbers. It was on the 11th month, the 11th day and 11th hour that the guns fell silent over the World War 1 battlefields.
That was the start of the Veterans Day observance but there are more numbers than that.
Since the War of Independence to today, the cost of freedom, the cost in blood has been steep. There have been 1,317,800 servicemen and women, patriots all, who have quit counting any numbers, giving up their lives for their fellow Americans.
The number of wounded is three to four times that amount with scars that can and can't be seen but each one bears just the same. vet-art
In perspective, there are 1,137 words in the Declaration of Independence; another 4,543 in the Constitution; just 13 stripes for 50 stars in the American flag.
For each word, each stripe, each star, 230 servicemen and women have given their lives.
Another number, 24, comes to mind. That's the number of notes in a simple but poignant bugle call. Taps has no words but brings more tears to eyes than any other song.
When Taps is played, the only number that matters is 1. That is the lone serviceman or woman who is finally at rest under the 13 stripes and 50 stars that so many before have given their tomorrows for our todays.
This Veterans Day, take time to remember the numbers great and small and thank them for their sacrifice. Living and dead, they have all given up a number that they cannot get back.
For them, for their sacrifice, for their honor we publish 66 words they all learned as children and we should never forget:
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.