Veterans Day 2012

Veterans Day.
There are 22 million War Veterans in the United States, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. This includes veterans from World Wars I and II, as well as the Korean conflict, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War.
Veterans Day was originally known as Armistice Day and was meant to honor the nation's World War I veterans. Armistice Day officially received its name in 1926 through a congressional resolution and became a national holiday in 1938.
World War I, which was known at the time as "The Great War," officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside Versailles, France. Fighting had actually ended seven months earlier, however, when an armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. For that reason, Nov. 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of "the war to end all wars."
In 1953, Alvin J. King of Emporia, Kan., proposed that Armistice Day be changed to Veterans Day to recognize and honor American veterans of all wars and conflicts. King came up with the idea after his nephew, John Cooper, was killed in action during World War II.
In 1954, at the urging of veterans service organizations, Congress amended the 1938 law that created Armistice Day by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans." With President Dwight D. Eisenhower's signature, the legislation became Public Law 380 on June 1, 1954.
The story begins with the famous poem, "In Flanders Fields," written by John McCrae in 1915 ("In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row"). In 1918 Moina Belle Michael, on reading McCrae's poem, pledged to always wear a red poppy as a sign of remembrance. Her idea spread, and in 1924 the Veterans of Foreign Wars launched its "Buddy Poppy" program to help disabled and needy veterans.
Abraham Lincoln The motto of the Department of Veterans Affairs is "To care for him who shall have borne the battle." The line is from the final paragraph of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, which he delivered on March 4, 1865, as the nation braced itself for the final throes of the Civil War.
"God Bless America," by Irving Berlin
In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Irving Berlin dug out a song he'd written in 1918 for an army camp show, changed a few lyrics, and renamed it "God Bless America." On Nov. 10, Kate Smith sang it as the closing number on an Armistice Day edition of her immensely popular CBS Radio show. In short order it become the "peace anthem" that Berlin had wanted it to be — and Kate Smith's signature song.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 15.8 million veterans — 71 percent — voted in the 2008 presidential election, compared with 63 percent of non-veterans.
Of the 44 U.S. presidents 31 have been veterans?    While the Constitution designates the President of the United States as the commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, only 31 presidents have entered office as veterans. No member of the U.S. Marine Corps or U.S. Coast Guard has yet been elected President.