Veteran's Day: The Story Of The Armistice & Our Troops
Behind the we share today are the stories of a real person who decided for one reason or another to serve in the US military. Someone who deeply cares for their country, someone who might've had nowhere else to go, or a brave soul looking for a dangerous adventure. No matter what the reason, today is their day.
There simply wouldn't be tales to tell of conflicts past without the men & women who have served in the military. We could not do what we do without researching the people who were on the ground, and what little has been shared on the world wide web. And of course, we sell used gear that now-veterans may have used & give it a new life. It's our way to go beyond word of mouth to share these historical nuggets.
We're part veteran-owned, employ veterans, and have worked closely with veteran creators to make their voices & creativity heard. We highly encourage you, whether it's talking to a veteran you know to hear a good story or just reading about their experiences, to branch out.
Without further ado, we'd like to tell the story, starting at the very final minutes of world war 1.
"Armistice Day"
In the early hours of 11th of November 1918, in the forests of Northern France, an armistice was signed to bring The Great War to a close. According to the treaty, hostilities would end on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
And they really took that seriously. Last-ditch fighting took place with nearly 3,000 losing their lives up until the very last second of World War I.
Even then, true "Peace" wasn't ratified on paper until early 1920 after the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Palais' hall of mirrors.
Of course, what happened in the next few decades was anything but peace.
A period of unprecedented instability for much of the world occurred. Economies were fragile, families were broken, and it only led to an arguably worse conflict in the end.
"Splendid Forgetfulness"
With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. … Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes.
- President Woodrow Wilson
As President Wilson put it at the time, The Great War was fought in "Splendid forgetfulness" — people dropped everything in their daily lives, whatever the motive might have been, to go fight in the war and [most likely] die for a greater cause.
Over 100 years later, President Wilson's notion of "Splendid forgetfulness" still holds true.
While the stakes certainly weren't what they were in 1917 or 1944, many people still drop everything to do what they believe must be done.
As we said, people join the military for a variety of reasons in the USA. Some do it for career building, others because they feel their life has hit a dead end, all having the awareness that it's for a greater cause that they just might end up dying for.
Veteran's Day
Side note: you can spell it "Veterans' day", "Veterans Day" or "Veteran's Day" and all are correct and used all over the place. Who Knew!
In 1954, US Congress amended the name of the holiday, replacing "Armistice Day" with "Veterans Day".
Reflecting on the original intent, we think it's rather fitting that we pay tribute more to those who served instead of the guys on that one railway carriage in the forest who "ended" the war.
For over a decade, our bread and butter has been military surplus — an overwhelming majority of which is used.
Essentially, we're handling stuff that now-veterans used, and have given it a new life by getting it to our customers (many of which are veterans).
Most everything we've sold has a deeper story about a real person behind it.
A young lad's very first day in bootcamp.
A bone-chilling winter patrol farther away from home than you could imagine.
A grueling training exercise with your nation's finest men.
One of our core missions as a business is sharing these stories with veterans and non-veterans alike. We're happy that by selling surplus from every corner of the globe, we're able to do that in a way that goes beyond word of mouth. Give the product descriptions a read when you're here on KommandoStore to see all the historical nuggets we've shared over the years, and if you know a veteran, ask if they have any tales to tell too...