In before the big contest!

[sumgai]

It be Veterans' Day.

Me hat's off to those of you who served our country!

Note my signature, to be visible for only a few more days, so I'll include it here for posterity.

A Simple Truth.......
A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life."

That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.

sumgai
USA, retired

[newey]

Well said, SG. And our hats are off to you as well!

Although this day is now in honor of all military veterans, we should remember that it denotes the November 11, 1918 Armistice which ended "The Great War", or World War I as it is now known.

The US was involved in that conflict for less than 19 months and sustained over 116,000 combat deaths; total deaths worldwide, military and civilian, were over 16 million!

On top of that, the 1918 swine flu pandemic (a strain of H1N1 . . .) killed at least 50 million people worldwide- some estimates run as high as 100 million people. 50 million people in 1918 was about 3% of the total population! Of course, the war helped spread the flu as well . . . and the prevalence of the flu helped end the war.

So, if you thought there was an overreaction to this latest swine flu scare, think again!

But, back to the topic at hand, we should never forget the "war to end all wars".