Veterans Day 2012

Thanks to all of those Veterans out there for your service!

With Veterans Day once again upon us, I was reminded of what was happening during World War II, as fighting raged across the globe seventy years ago this week. Veterans Day of course dates back to the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I on November 11, 1918, and was extended in 1945 to honor all veterans. Twenty-three years after President Woodrow Wilson declared it a  holiday to commemorate “the war to end all wars,” World War II affected nearly every person on earth. U.S. soldiers had invaded North Africa on November 8, 1948. Four days later British soldiers defeated the German Afrika Korps at Tobruk, Libya. Armed with a sophisticated radar, the U.S.S. Helena fired the first shots of the First Battle of Guadalcanal just after midnight of August 13, in an attempt to prevent the Japanese Navy from landing reinforcements on the island.

Western Montana events honoring Veterans Day can be found here.

Among the other traditional events during Veterans Day, the Rocky Mountain of Museum History will be hosting a showing of “Forgotten Soldiers,” about the soldiers who fought at Bataan, and survived the Death March, prison camps, and the “Hell Ships.” Check it out at 3:30 p.m.on November 11, 2012 at the Roxy Theater in Missoula. For more information call 406-549-5346.

 

 

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