Veterans Day Circa 1960

In 1938, an act of Congress made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday “…. a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day."…. After American forces had fought aggression in Korea during the early 50’s, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans."… In 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation.…. In the 50’s and 60’s, lots of folks still referred to it as "Armistice Day"… and the majority of the male population were WWII and/or Korean War Veterans….Ike was a vet… JFK was a vet… Most of the dad’s were Vets… Sure as shootin’ there was a national draft…

But high school kids in the early 60’s didn’t think too much about it… Indeed, before the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” in August of 1964, Viet Nam was barely a blip on America’s radar… I mean… Ya… If you were a guy, you would most likely get drafted… So you would go… Even Elvis… The King… Got drafted and went… I remember that my sisters were thrilled that he passed his physical “with flying colors”… And my dad had to admit that Elvis was OK… He didn’t try to squirrel out like most movie stars and pretty boys… Nope… Elvis did his duty… He was alright… And two years guarding the country didn’t kill his career… IT FLOURISHED!!!...

In the 40’s there were a lot of songs aim at G.I.’s… But not so much the peace time late 50’s and 60’s… But that does not diminish the role of the American Vet… Men and women… Dating back to the Minute Men and Colonial Militia… Have played in enabling us to eat hog dogs at ball games… Bad mouth our government… Or write blogs about damn near anything we want… So… Let’s celebrate the American Vet!!!!