Dispatches from Home – Veterans Day November 11 2024.

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My Dad, the Marine, often shared a poignant memory with me. When he lived in Chicago in the 1930s, he recounted that on November 11th, if it coincided with a school day, he and his classmates, along with the entire school staff, would stand in the auditorium at 11:00 in solemn silence for two minutes. This act of reverence was in remembrance of the end of World War I when the brutal conflict ceased on “The Eleventh Hour, of the Eleventh Day, of the Eleventh Month.”

As it was then known, Armistice Day has since become Veterans Day, the day we honor all veterans and active military of the United States Armed Forces. Let me take this time to thank our country’s veterans and active military for their service, which ensures our freedoms. Lest we forget those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, dying in pursuit of the freedoms we all hold dear, as we celebrate those who continue to ensure them!

In the dark days of WWII, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

To those who would do the same, I thank you!

With deepest respect and gratitude, Anthony Wayne Kalberg

Dad in Junior High in 1941. He’s sitting on the floor, 3rd from the left. I’ve often wondered how many of the boys in this snap were rushed off to Boot Camp three or four years later, quickly became men, and managed to survive to tell the tale of their survival in both the European and Pacific theaters.
Dad at Camp Pendleton 1944.
My Uncle Ed somewhere in the Pacific. He’s in between his two friends.