Veterans Day - 2011

Today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 2011, our Nation will pause to honor America’s Veterans and celebrate their contributions to our way of life. Few have given more to our Nation than the men and women who have served in our Armed Forces in peace and in war.  At 11:00 am, 93 years have passed since the armistice that ended World War I, and the unforgotten horridness of 39 Million Allied and Central Powers soldiers KIA, WIA, and MIA.

Since WWI, generation after generation of Americans—from Bunker Hill and Bennington to Baghdad and Abbottabad—protected, defended, and preserved the principles and ideals that define our democracy. Across that remarkable sweep of history, today’s America was shaped at Lexington and Concord, Antietam and Gettysburg, in the skies over Midway, on the beaches of Normandy, in winter’s grip at Chosin Reservoir, in the heat of Ia Drang Valley, from the Persian Gulf into Afghanistan and Iraq by those who wore our Nation’s uniforms. Over twenty-two million living Veterans today embody our exceptional character and values as a people—each a line in our Nation’s history, but together many chapters towards today’s future.

As we honor and celebrate the contributions of all of our Nation’s Veterans, we take special pride in those Veterans in Squadron 188 and the Civil Air Patrol who have served in our Armed Forces and CAP during times of peace and times of war.

Thank you to our own Veterans:

Col George E Dijeau, CAP

Capt Demetrius B Wren, USAF

1st Lt David Dunham, USN

1st Lt Pat Bitz, USA

1st Lt Doug Perreira, USAF

2d Lt Rex Beach, USN

God bless our Veterans. And may God continue to bless this great country of ours.

Capt Luneau is Squadron 188's Deputy Commander and is a qualified Mission Pilot.