Remembrance Day

This coming Monday, November 11th, at 11 a.m., you may hear sirens and bells being rung to remember the end of World War I, also known as Armistice Day and Veterans Day.

Maybe in your cache of pictures you have a sepia-toned photograph of a soldier, wearing a uniform with wrappings on the legs. I have one of my grandfather, Dolphus Hannard McCarter, age 19, he was drafted.

When the United States decided to enter the war after learning that the German government was trying to enter an alliance with Mexico, our military did not have an official uniform and no helmet. The helmet they used was also used by British and French fighters. Their nickname was the Doughboys and one historian said it was because they marched in dusty terrains and appeared to have been covered in flour.

On November 11th, 1918, allies and Germany met to end fighting on land, sea and air. The Great War as World War I was known was to be the end of world wars. It was the bloodiest of wars. The United States officially lost 53,402 military—of those 1,200 were Georgia natives.

When the military came home they brought with them the worst pandemic the world has ever experienced known as the Spanish Flu which in total infected 500 million people around the world, killing 675,000 in the United States.

Fierce battles using the most modern weapons and lethal gases were used for the first time, the land was left scorched and barren. Within a few years, the barren land produced thousands of poppy flowers and those flowers have been associated with World War I ever since. The famous poem, In Flanders Fields, started the program whereby citizens wear poppy flowers during this time of the year.

“In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses row on row”, and unto this day from May to August, the red poppies bloom and we wear them on our lapels on Veterans Day, to honor and remember. Thank you for your service and for your sacrifice.