A Salute to the Troops

detail, Civil War statue, downtown Central Park, Jacksonville, IL

Besides being Veterans Day, the official U.S. holiday that honors all its armed services  veterans, today is also Death/Duty Day. It marks the end of World War 1, and remembers all who were lost in that war, regardless of nationality or what side they fought on.

Why have I never heard of this? Why would the sum total of all I know about WW1 fit into a sewing thimble? Why wasn’t I taught about this part of history in school? Was it not considered history back in the 1960s? Or is it that teachers enjoy teaching about the American Revolution and the Civil War so much that they lose track of time and don’t get around to 20^th century?

Death/Duty Day? 

A sort of strange name, don’t you think?

But then again, war is kind of incomprehensible too!