This past year, the last surviving veteran of the 1st World War passed away at the age of 110. She was Florence Green, a British citizen who served in the Women’s Royal Air Force as an officers’ mess steward.
For the first time since the guns stopped on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, in 1918, the voices from that most horrible war are now silent.
Though begun as “Armistice Day,” Veterans Day has expanded in the United States as a day for all those brave men and women who fight to keep us free. Poppies have become the traditional symbol of remembrance for that war. John McCrae’s poem is still moving and appropriate:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Though none are left from that war, let us never forget them.
Requiescat in pace
