Some Thoughts on Veteran's Day

A Brief Genealogical Survey of Our Military Servicemen

James Tanner, one of our blog authors, was in the service during the Vietnam War.

Wallace Tanner served in the Army Air Forces during the Second World War:

John Wessman served in the Army during the Second World War. 

His many brothers also served in the war:

Roy Tanner served in Europe during the First World War:

Lester Glade enlisted in the Army but the Armistice 

was signed before he was sent overseas:

John Morgan served in the Civil War, 

fighting for the Union with Wilder's Lightning Brigade:

Samuel Shepherd served in the War of 1812, 

spending time in a prisoner of war camp in Canada:

A number of ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. 

Here are our Vermont soldiers: The Green Mountain Boys.

Going back further in history, a number of family lines have 

military connections to the French-Indian Wars:

Looking beyond the ocean, Alexander Hill fought at the 

Battle of the Nile during the Napoleonic Wars:

And there are more, but that's what I can remember off the top of my head.

A Personal Note about Observances Around the World This Week

There's a quote going around Facebook right now, misattributed to Winston Churchill, “We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.” Besides the fact that it doesn't sound like Churchill, it was originally attributed to George Orwell, who evidently also didn't say it.

Right now I am helping prepare a series of posts and arrange a number of guest posts for Keepapitchinin: The Mormon History Blog on the topic of German Memorial Day (Volkstrauertag), which is coming up this Sunday. The series will begin this Wednesday and run until we run out of posts.

It has been a deeply emotional experience to process and write about the experience of the German Latter-day Saints during the wars of the 20th Century. The soldiers who wrote back home about their experiences, much like any young men anywhere in the world pressed into military service, were not "rough men." They were tender-hearted soldier-missionaries, and like so many American and British soldiers, many of them lie buried in graves all over Europe, having given the ultimate sacrifice for their beloved homeland.

(Do not mistake my comments as approval for the German regimes during either war.)

Don't miss today's post at Keepapitchinin: "Every Effort to Promote Love": Changing the Focus of Armistice Day, and let us use the observances of Memorial Day and Veteran's Day to commit ourselves to peace and justice around the world.