Veterans Day history filled with pride, solemnity

• What: 28th annual Veterans Parade at Fort Vancouver, presented by the Lough Legacy.

• Where: Parade route starts on Evergreen Boulevard, proceeds west along Officers Row, south down Fort Vancouver Way and east onto Fifth Street.

• When: Nov. 8. Opening ceremony starts at 10 a.m. at the Marshall House, 1301 Officers Row, Vancouver. Parade starts at 11 a.m. and typically lasts two hours.

• Information: 360-992-1800 or fortvan.org/veterans-parade.html

The 28th annual Veterans Parade at Fort Vancouver will bring about 100 groups together to honor military members and their service Saturday, but its legacy stretches back much further.

Veterans Day first came about as a commemoration of the end of fighting in World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. Originally called Armistice Day, the event quickly grew to include the honoring of soldiers in all wars — although the name wasn’t changed to Veterans Day until 1954.

World War I began on July 28, 1914, with the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, at the hands of Gavrilo Princip.

The assassinations were aimed at stopping Austria-Hungary from expanding into Serbia and Bosnia. But when Germany, France and the United Kingdom came to the aid of their allies, it set off a global conflict that lasted almost four years.

During much of the war, soldiers were bogged down in trenches. There they endured many horrors, including extremely unsanitary conditions, disease, ill-advised bayonet charges into machine gun fire, massive artillery barrages and poison gas attacks.

The United States joined the fighting late, on April 6, 1917, but American soldiers are credited with helping the Allied powers secure the victory.

When the war was finished, more than 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians were dead, and four major imperial powers of the day — the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires — had ceased to exist.

After the fighting ended, the national mood in the U.S. was celebratory, but it became more somber about the conflict in subsequent years.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the start of what was then called The Great War, here are some select tidbits from the Armistice Day celebrations that followed in Vancouver:

Nov. 11, 1919

President Woodrow Wilson pronounced the first Armistice Day as Nov. 11, 1919. (It was widely celebrated from then on but wasn’t official until it became an act of Congress on May 13, 1938.)

Wilson said: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”

A similar proclamation from Vancouver Mayor G.R. Percival on Nov. 10, 1919, read: “One year ago, on the 11th of this month, the Armistice was signed and The Great War was brought to a close. All America rejoiced that the fruits of victory were to be realized. Autocracy ceased and democracy prevailed. The heroic deeds of our Army and Navy were heralded afar. In commemoration of the services rendered by all those who participated in the war, both at home and abroad, it is fit and proper that we should lay aside our daily cares and duties and celebrate this great day.”

The first Armistice Day in Vancouver was celebrated with a football game, several dances, a bonfire at the corner of Ninth and Main streets, band concerts and speeches. There was also a display of “battlefield curiosities” donated to the American Legion by hundreds of local soldiers, including “everything imaginable from the battlefields, from machine guns to parts of airplanes.”

All retail stores closed at noon in honor of the day, along with banks, the courthouse and the post office. Schools remained open because they didn’t get word from the state educational authorities in time.

Most Vancouver residents attended the 3 p.m. football game between Vancouver High School and American Legion alumni. It was a back-and-forth battle which Vancouver High won 7-0 after a defensive end named King scored on a fumble recovery. A Columbian story from Nov. 12 noted that the American Legion alumni were a bit out of shape, but put up a good fight. “The Legion team was heavy, in fact fat, but decidedly experienced,” the story said.

Nov. 11, 1920

The city’s second Armistice Day celebration, on Nov. 11, 1920, kicked off with a 2 p.m. parade with veterans from several wars, including the Civil War, Spanish-American War, Indian Wars, recent (at the time) fighting against Bolsheviks in Siberia, Philippines Insurrection and the Boxer Rebellion. Speeches and a groundbreaking for a new American Legion clubhouse followed, after which the town headed over to Vancouver High for a football game against Chehalis, which Vancouver won 64-0, netting the team the Western Washington title.

The night ended with dances, a vaudeville act at Vancouver’s Liberty Theater and a showing of “God’s Country and the Woman,” by James Oliver Curwood, a 1919 silent film that also went by the title “Back to God’s Country.”

Nov. 11, 1928

On the 10th anniversary of the 1918 armistice, a Sunday, a host of special religious services were held at city churches. It was a far more somber affair, with no football game or dances listed for that day or for the larger Armistice Day celebration on Nov. 12.

The Monday observation of the holiday in 1928 was marked by a parade featuring World War I veteran Frank LeMay as grand marshal and honored guests Brig. Gen. James H. Reeves of the Fifth Brigade, Chaplain W.S. Gilbert of the Oregon National Guard and Vancouver Mayor J.P. Kiggins. The parade included veterans from conflicts dating back to the Civil War, a 21-gun salute and a series of memorial services.

Mayor Kiggins and E.J. Berry, president of the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, issued a proclamation that read: “To all the world Nov. 11, 1918, is the greatest date of modern history. It marked the end of the world’s greatest war. We hope it was the beginning of the world’s greatest peace. As a beacon reminder of everything men endured for four years, of the price paid for peace, and of the value of peace, it should well be a world holiday. The average American slept in his home the night of Armistice Day, as he had throughout the war. The more than 4 million in uniform were where their orders held them and it was months before many of them saw home again. After 10 years, we have had opportunity to consider what it would have meant had the war not ended in 1918. Truly we should be grateful.”

A special advertisement from several local businesses echoed the sentiment, reading: “A million hopes, a million fears, a million souls struggling in the darkness against despair. Then suddenly — the light! Such was Armistice Day; a never-to-be-forgotten memory to the throngs who fought and to the throngs who awaited news of the fight. For us who commemorate the day there is joy in the realization that the struggle was not in vain. The great side of Right triumphed and the peace established was a lasting peace. When we stand with bared heads facing the direction of the rising sun, let us give thanks for victory. Let us silently bless the unknown legions who have passed in last review; the Gold Star mothers who live on in glorified loveliness, the wounded veterans who present the most valiant picture of self-sacrifice the world has ever known. There are living heroes, too! Let us not forget them in the affairs of every day. As they walk with us in the busy enterprises of our own community let us pause to remember them as the protectors of our homes and fortunes. And so let us make Armistice Day a meaningful day indeed!”

Nov. 11, 1938

The 20th anniversary was marked by a large parade with veterans and a host of marching bands.

Schools, public offices and businesses were closed, but it was a bit less somber than the 10th anniversary. The celebratory football game returned, this time with a match between Shumway and Kelso junior high schools, plus an array of American Legion dances.

But an Associated Press story from that day indicates the darkness of World War II was on the horizon: “Twenty years after the war to end war, an anxious world paused today to reflect on peace and disillusionment. A new generation, with only dim memories or none at all of the world war and the great joy on Nov. 11, 1918, already has grown to fighting age. It comes to maturity through years of struggle against the devastation of past war, amid new wars, and preparation for more war, amid weakened democracy and growing power of dictatorship.

” ‘The situation in the world today is as menacing as at any critical time in history,’ declared Gen. John J. Pershing, who led the American forces in France.

“It was a rare statement on public affairs from Pershing, who accepted an invitation to attend memorial ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“The times, General Pershing said, demand ‘immediate and vigorous action lest there be visited upon us the recent experience of England and France …We are the natural protectors of the freedom of this hemisphere and we cannot escape our obligation.’ “

World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.