Ponca City’s award-winning annual Veterans Day Parade, one of the premier parades in all of Oklahoma, took place on a crisp Saturday morning in the historic downtown district, and just eight days before the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I.
A Veterans Day celebration followed at War Memorial Park, with local veterans honored by the community.
This year Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday fallon the same day: this Sunday, November 11.
On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 2018, people worldwide will mark the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, pausing to recognize those who sacrificed and those who will sacrifice in the defense of freedom and democracy.
Armistice Day observed the cease-fire agreement in World War I in 1918, and that day would eventuallybecome Veterans Day.
Though the fighting ended on Nov. 11, 1918, World War I officially ended months later when the Treaty of Versailles was singed on June 28, 1919.
Armistice Day did not become a legal holiday until May 13, 1938, and it primarily focused on honoring veterans of World War I.
Just two hours north of Ponca City in Kansas, Emporia was the first city inthe nation to observe the day as Veterans Day on Nov. 11, 1953. U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, who was also from Emporia, introduced a bill after that celebration to change Armistice Day to Veterans Day, according to a congressional document. The change aimed to honor veterans of all wars.
President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill into law, with King present, on June 1, 1954.
But 1954wasn’t the last year changes would be made to Veterans Day, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In 1968, a bill let four national holidays be celebrated on Mondays. Veterans Day was one of those holidays.
And so, as we pass the week between last Saturday’s parade and this Sunday’s official anniversary of the end of what was once referred to as “the warto end all wars,” continue to take time to remember and honor the memory of all who have defended our nation in wars and conflicts all around the world both before and since.
We all owe a great debt of gratitude for the sacrifices made by soldiers, sailors, pilots, and all members of all armed forces who have too often made the greatest sacrifice of all to secure our continued way of life.