100 years of forgetting: How America’s WWI veterans went from heroes to the forgotten

This is my third Veterans Day column, and my message has not changed. I bemoan the general decline in interest, especially among younger people, in recognizing the sacrifices that others have made to maintain our way of life.

Unfortunately, too many young people today also think that honoring veterans and being proud of those who serve is somehow glorifying war.

I can assure you that no one hates war more than those of us who have fought in one.

Younger veterans themselves contribute to this malaise. They appreciate family-inclusive activities, and their day-to-day communications are all technology-based. They can get their war story fix on Facebook, through group chats and via their cellphones.

This fast-paced digital world leaves little room for joining traditional groups such as the VFW or the American Legion, once bulwarks of camaraderie for those who had served. Membership in such groups is steadily declining, as is attendance at military functions and participation in veterans events.

That does not mean we should stop fighting. The need is still great, as President Joe Biden remarked in August: “As a nation, we have many obligations, but only one truly sacred obligation: to train and equip those we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they return home, and when they don’t.”

Looking back 100 years

In researching today’s column, I decided to find out how we marked Armistice Day in 1924. The congressional resolution for an annual national observance was still two years in the future, but informal celebrations of “Armistice Day” began on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I.

As you might expect, the newspaper descriptions of the day’s activities focused on the parades. Some 6,000 men and women marched through downtown Providence, an impressive turnout.

“The … populace eagerly stretched to see their heroes past and future, as Civil War, Spanish War and World War Veterans, members of the state military commands and Boy Scouts passed in review,” this newspaper reported.

But then something else caught my attention. The governor and the mayor invited the public to a solemn ceremony to honor our veterans after the parade. A large turnout was expected, so they hired the Elks Auditorium.

Fewer than 100 people showed up.

1923 Armistice Day parade makes its way up Broad Street in Pawtucket. (Providence Journal staff, file)

The governor looked over the largely empty hall and said, “I can’t help but feel that the citizens of the state have not taken hold of the true significance of Armistice Day. … I believe this apparent neglect of our soldier dead is merely thoughtlessness of what the American boys did for us in the war. We seem to forget the lessons which this war as well as previous ones taught us.”

Perhaps this apathy we see today is not unique to the 21st century? Those remarks from 100 years ago give me hope that our respect and gratitude for veterans is not a straight line decline, but part of a cycle.

As a Vietnam veteran, I have bought into the idea that our society in general feels less strongly today about honoring veterans – including those who died for their country – than did previous generations. The low point, of course, was the way we were treated when we returned home from Vietnam.

That’s 50 years ago now. Apparently, I did not go back far enough.

Read the entire article on the Providence Journal website .
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