Editorial: Veterans Day 2003

"Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor all those who served honorably in the military -- in wartime or peacetime. In fact, Veterans Day is largely intended to thank living veterans for their service ..." The emphasis is the VA's.

And indeed we should thank and honor our veterans, especially as the Iraq war underscores the spirit of service and sacrifice that infuses the American military.

But each Veterans Day is also a national snapshot of generations in passage. The government estimates that fewer than 200 World War I veterans are alive; that even as their memorial in Washington nears completion, World War II veterans are leaving us at a rate of more than 1,000 a day; that the largest percentage of veterans, about 30 percent, are now Vietnam-era; and that a growing percentage, 16 percent since 1990, is women.

And, too, Veterans Day is a landmark of huge significance on the American historical calendar. It is celebrated on Nov. 11 for a good reason.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, World War I came to an end. The United States played a small but decisive role in that conflict but the experience of creating a large -- ultimately more than 4.7 million served -- modern military and sending it overseas to fight for geopolitical reasons radically transformed America and its place in the world.

Those new veterans were no longer callow farm boys. There was a lot of truth in the 1919 ditty, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm After They've Seen Paree?" By 1920, America for the first time was more urban than rural.

The United States had perforce become a global power, and we would grow into those responsibilities because of the historical consequences of 1914-1918 -- World War II and the Cold War, the perilous 44-year standoff with the Soviet Union. It is fair to say that our superpower status began on this date.

On Veterans Day, we both honor our veterans and commemorate our history.