On a frosty fall morning sunlight sparkles through a small American flag paying its silent tribute to a veteran lying at rest in the Bellville Cemetery. Of nearly 6,000 graves in this cemetery some 600 are for veterans, including the grave surrounded by the wrought iron fence in the upper left background; that of a Revolutionary War veteran who fought for his country before his town came into existence.
WAR--
War is firmly implanted in the fabric of our nation’s history.
The Revolutionary War gave birth to our country. That began in 1775 with skirmishes between the Minutemen and the British, and, ended with Cornwallis surrendering in Yorktown in 1781.
That war was rejoined with the British in 1812 with our young nation’s fight for freedom on the high seas. It ended in 1815 after a young US Navy Commodore named Perry beat the British in the battle of Lake Erie near Put-In-Bay and the Treaty of Ghent was later signed.
Few remember the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 which led to the annexation of California and New Mexico.
Just 13 years later we were engaged in a war with ourselves, The Civil War, which began with the Confederates firing on Fort Sumter in 1861 and ended with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
Meanwhile, wrapped around those violent epics were the near-continuous Indian Wars whose dates history has assigned as being from 1775 to 1890. Remember such Chieftain names as Pontiac and Tecumseh, or a white guy named Custer and a place called Little Big Horn?
In 1898 we were engaged in War with Spain which began with the sinking of the US battleship Maine in Havana harbor. It ended with the Treaty of Paris, ratified in 1899 and brought Guam and Puerto Rico under US influence where they remain to this day.
By 1917 we were drawn into World War I which actually began in Europe in 1914. Those hostilities ceased November 11, 1918. That one was known as the War to End all Wars. Ha.
Once again, a mere 23 years passed after the “War to End all Wars” until we were engaged in World War II; commencing with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ending with their surrender in August 1945.
This dismal parade continued with:
--The Korean War, 1950-1953.
--The Vietnam War; Golf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 to fall of the US Embassy in Saigon, 1975.
--The Persian Gulf War #1, August 1990-April 1991.
--The War on Terrorism; from the September 11, 2001 attacks to present.
--The Persian Gulf War #2, March 2003 to present.
Any historical compilation is subjective.
We could have mentioned the Barbary Wars of the early 1800s, or skirmishes with Granada, Panama and Haiti, or, how about The Cold War with a beginning often traced to the Berlin Blockade of 1948 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989—a period during which nuclear Armageddon was never far from our minds.
How about Bosnia in the recent past. Some will claim that was not a war, but, don’t debate that with families who lost loved ones there.
Today, the majority of the population of our country is under the age of 25. Those folks have relatively little life’s experience to call on, and with the deplorable teaching of history in today’s classrooms, very little historical knowledge either.
There is an old saying that folks who do not learn the lessons of history are bound to repeat its mistakes.
WAR--
War is firmly implanted in the fabric of our nation’s history.
The Revolutionary War gave birth to our country. That began in 1775 with skirmishes between the Minutemen and the British, and, ended with Cornwallis surrendering in Yorktown in 1781.
That war was rejoined with the British in 1812 with our young nation’s fight for freedom on the high seas. It ended in 1815 after a young US Navy Commodore named Perry beat the British in the battle of Lake Erie near Put-In-Bay and the Treaty of Ghent was later signed.
Few remember the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 which led to the annexation of California and New Mexico.
Just 13 years later we were engaged in a war with ourselves, The Civil War, which began with the Confederates firing on Fort Sumter in 1861 and ended with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
Meanwhile, wrapped around those violent epics were the near-continuous Indian Wars whose dates history has assigned as being from 1775 to 1890. Remember such Chieftain names as Pontiac and Tecumseh, or a white guy named Custer and a place called Little Big Horn?
In 1898 we were engaged in War with Spain which began with the sinking of the US battleship Maine in Havana harbor. It ended with the Treaty of Paris, ratified in 1899 and brought Guam and Puerto Rico under US influence where they remain to this day.
By 1917 we were drawn into World War I which actually began in Europe in 1914. Those hostilities ceased November 11, 1918. That one was known as the War to End all Wars. Ha.
Once again, a mere 23 years passed after the “War to End all Wars” until we were engaged in World War II; commencing with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ending with their surrender in August 1945.
This dismal parade continued with:
--The Korean War, 1950-1953.
--The Vietnam War; Golf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 to fall of the US Embassy in Saigon, 1975.
--The Persian Gulf War #1, August 1990-April 1991.
--The War on Terrorism; from the September 11, 2001 attacks to present.
--The Persian Gulf War #2, March 2003 to present.
Any historical compilation is subjective.
We could have mentioned the Barbary Wars of the early 1800s, or skirmishes with Granada, Panama and Haiti, or, how about The Cold War with a beginning often traced to the Berlin Blockade of 1948 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989—a period during which nuclear Armageddon was never far from our minds.
How about Bosnia in the recent past. Some will claim that was not a war, but, don’t debate that with families who lost loved ones there.
Today, the majority of the population of our country is under the age of 25. Those folks have relatively little life’s experience to call on, and with the deplorable teaching of history in today’s classrooms, very little historical knowledge either.
There is an old saying that folks who do not learn the lessons of history are bound to repeat its mistakes.
With my apologies to the younger generations, I am glad I am the age I am.
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