VETERANS DAY
Eighty-years ago, as Americans marked the most meaningful Armistice Day since 1918, many of the troops that had been sent abroad years earlier were returning stateside, victorious after nearly four long years of war.
By November 1945, more than 1.4 million U.S. service members were home, returned, beginning en masse after Victory in Europe Day. Returns continued in a steady stream, until September of 1945, with victory over Japan in the Pacific, when “Operation Magic Carpet” was set in motion.
Navy battleships and every other kind of vessel, heavily laden with soldiers and sailors on their way home, began steaming back across the Pacific.
According to historical reports, almost 700,000 personnel were returned the following month, in December 1945.
According to information from the Social Security Administration, 3.4 million babies were born the following year — a record number, marking the start of an 18-year period of increased birth rates that continued until 1964.
While supplies of every commodity had been strictly rationed during the war years, a few things were becoming readily available by the end of 1945.
Sugar was the last item to be de-rationed in the United States, ending in June 1947, while Europe and the other theaters of war continued rationing for some time — some extending into the early 1950s.
Locally, one news account on the front page on Nov. 11, 1945, recalling the end of the first World War 27 years earlier, told how the citizens of San Angelo came out into the streets.
“The town went wild,” the report stated, “Kaiser Wilhelm was hanged in effigy on a wire stretched between the Central National Bank and the First National Bank on East Beauregard.
“Pistols with blank cartridges were fired at the figure. Then some exuberant fellow a bit of realism by firing a live bullet — and a window in the Central National Bank collapsed with a tinkle.
“Jessie Couch, the single surviving member of the only draft board in Tom Green County, closed shop.
“It was over, he thought.
Then he got a wire directing him to help other draft boards get their records in.
He began making the rounds and discovered one draft board west of here that had not even filled out any questionnaires.
NO RED TAPE
“How did you classify the men?” he wanted to know.
“Aw, we knew everybody, anyway,” he was told, “So we just called ’em up, gave ’em a meal ticket and said goodbye.”
“I didn’t get those questionnaires in until after those boys got home,” Couch said.
Thus war came to an end to the world and to San Angelo.
A Brief Peace
The Peace of Armistice Day lasted 23 years for America, but for England, it had lasted only until September of 1939, when war on Germany was declared once again.
For Americans, World War II lasted for approximately 44 months, from Dec. 7, 1941, to the official end of the war on Sept. 2, 1945.
For England, the war lasted closer to six years.
There was great relief that the victory in Europe, in May of 1945, was quickly followed by victory in the Pacific, as many experts expected that conflict to continue for another year or more.
1975: A Different Feeling for a Different War
Fifty-years ago, the November observance — by then called Veteran’s Day — wasn’t even mentioned on the front page.
At all.
This is largely because of the Uniform Holiday Act, but it’s also because the nation had deep feelings about the conflict in Vietnam, which had ended with nearly 60,000 American lives lost, and no victory.
According to historical records, by November of 1975, almost all American troops had been returned to the United States with the final evacuation of U.S. personnel during the Fall of Saigon in April of that year.
These men, mostly draftees, did not receive the same welcome home their fathers had 30 years before.
A detail of events around San Angelo that day was found on Page 2A:
A variety of activities will take place today as local veteran’s groups observe Veteran’s Day.
Many members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and MIA-POW will attend a banquet sponsored by the All Vets Council beginning at 8 p.m. at the American Legion Post 572.
A $2.50 per plate dinner will be served and the public is invited to attend.
An MIA-POW exhibit will be displayed at the Tom Green County Courthouse an City Hall. The group has also sent 50 letters to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and North and South Vietnam officials urging immediate release of military men still missing in action.
On Wednesday through Saturday, member of the MIA-POW group will sponsor a parking lot sale at the Sherwin-Williams store in the Village Shopping Center, and have a display booth at Goodfellow Air Force Base on Friday.
Unintended Consequences of Poor Decisions
The date for Veterans Day, since the Armistice of 1918, has been literally set in stone, marking the day when hostilities in Europe ceased on the “eleventh hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”
However, in 1968, the U.S. Congress, passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in an effort to create more three-day weekends, moving three holidays from their traditional dates to a nearby Monday.
The public did not respond well to the changes, especially the moving of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October.
The first year for this change was 1971, when Veterans Day was marked on Oct. 25.
Most places continued to have Veterans Day services on Nov. 11, but the move created widespread confusion anyway.
Despite broad public opposition to the move, it took some time to change things back, having been signed into law. President Gerald Ford signed a bill to restore tradition, returning Veterans Day to its original date, but it didn’t officially happen until 1978.
The other holidays impacted by the 1968 legislation were Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day, all moved to Monday observances, along with the creation of a new federal holiday on the second Monday in October with Columbus Day.
