This year, the bombing of the USSCole brings the peril of modern military life into stark relief. The terrorist bombing of the ship while it was refueling in a Yemen harbor killed 19 crew members. But memorial services for the dead of World War I had begun five years earlier with the interment of the unknown soldier inArlington National Cemetery. In 1938, Armistice Day was declared a national holiday. In December 1941, the United States entered that war too.
World wars seem less likely today.
But our service men and women remain in harm's way. The dangers are all the more perilous because they are not obvious. Terrorists rely on the unexpected to drive fear into the hearts of their enemies. In 1954 shortly after the Korean War, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the hero of World War II, declared Nov. 11 as VeteransDay. Though its commemoration was changed to the fourth Monday in November for 10 years, in 1978 Congress reinstituted the Nov. 11 holiday in recognition of that date's historic significance.