Good Morning Saatva Team,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope this note finds you having an excellent Veterans Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On this day 104 years ago, France and Germany signed an armistice that would quiet the guns on the Western Front and bring World War I\u2014often called the \u201cWar to End All Wars\u201d or the \u201cGreat War\u201d\u2014to an end. The armistice was signed in Compi\u00e8gne, France, at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, hence the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The fighting continued until the last possible moment and resulted in more than eight million casualties, including 2,738 deaths on the war\u2019s last day. The last American soldier to be killed in World War I was Henry Gunther, who was killed at 10:59 am on November 11th,\u00a0just sixty seconds before the guns fell silent. Though that silence didn\u2019t last long, actually less than a month, it marked a brief respite from the horrors of a war that would change the lives of Americans for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General George Pershing said of the Allied soldiers, \u201cTime will not dim the glory of their deeds,\u201d and what began as Armistice Day is now known as Veterans Day. We refer to it as \u201cVeterans\u201d Day and not \u201cVeteran\u2019s\u201d Day because the day doesn\u2019t belong to veterans but rather honors them. It is a time to thank current and past service members for answering the call. If you see or interact with a veteran today, you don\u2019t have to thank them for their service, but if you do, I\u2019m sure they won\u2019t mind. As a veteran myself, I can assure you that we appreciate it, even if we are sometimes unsure how to respond to the recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One way to visually commemorate Veterans Day is with a red poppy. If you see a red poppy in the media or in someone\u2019s lapel today, they are paying homage to the poem “In Flanders Fields<\/a>,” written in 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have been to the office in Whitestone or any of our Viewing Rooms, you\u2019ll have no doubt seen the vintage American flags hanging in each location. Seeing these flags reminds me of how proud I am to be part of a company that continues to be a steadfast supporter of veterans’ organizations, which has always been a cornerstone of our giving mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jarrod<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article has been reposted on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n