Almost 20 years ago when I had been a bearded civilian for more than a decade and was still almost ten years away from re-enlisting, I worked for a company with offices on five continents. I went overseas every month for the three years I worked there. In 1999, I was talking to one of my co-workers about my upcoming to several countries in Europe in mid-November.
I told her I would be in Paris, then Belgium, then I would have a meeting in Dusseldorf on the 11th before flying on to Singapore. She said, "You can't meet on the 11th, it's a holiday."
"Not in Germany," I said.
Armistice Day, as it is know in Europe, is celebrated by all those on the winning side in World War I, it is a regular work day in Germany.
She didn't know that Veteran's Day is when the Armistice that ended World War I was signed in Versailles. At 11 minutes after the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the war officially ended in 1918. So the observed holiday can be moved, as it was this year, to give government and other workers a day off, but the actual holiday is the 11th of November.
Until 2009, I did not consider myself a veteran. I had served during the Vietnam War, but not in the war. I served in the Cold War on the East-West border, but that war stayed cold until it ended. It wasn't until I deployed to Iraq in 2009 that I became an actual veteran.
Murrie Hubbard, the only other person from my 1971 Stoneham High School class to enlist during the Vietnam War, went straight to Vietnam and was a civilian again by 1973. He was a veteran. I tested missiles in Utah, I was not a veteran. Four decades later we both are veterans.
