I hope you all are having a good day. 

Veterans Day always seems to be that sort of day where people smile more. Friends who served - strangers, too - tell those stories that millionth time, and no one minds. The social media pages, be it Facebook, TikTok, or X, are alive with fantastic videos, hysterical memes, and glorious pictures.

And stories again.

Stories, as Henry V says, '...of what feats we did that day!' 

The memories and shared experiences of American military members across the generations and across time are gobbled up like candy on Veterans Day.

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This is us, the American military. The world's finest. What we do and what we did, and those who came before us.

This is our day.

How did it come about?

It started when the guns fell silent on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. When the armistice between Germany and the Allies went into effect.

(The audio is a 2018 recreation by Coda to Coda for the Imperial War Museum, based on a real 1918 sound-ranging graphic record of artillery from the American front. Not a contemporaneous audio recording.)

In 1954, Congress voted to expand Armistice Day to honor all American veterans of all wars, past and present.

...In 1954, after the U.S. had gone through the devastation of World War II and the Korean War, the scope of the holiday broadened. At the urging of veterans service organizations, the 83rd U.S. Congress amended the Act of 1938 by replacing the word "Armistice" with "Veterans."

In his Oct. 8, 1954, letter to the administrator of Veterans' Affairs, President Dwight Eisenhower wrote, “I have today signed a proclamation calling upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954, as Veterans Day. It is my earnest hope that all veterans, their organizations, and the entire citizenry will join hands to insure [sic] proper and widespread observance of this day.”

Nov. 11 became Veterans Day, a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Over the years, however, there were some changes to the actual date that Veterans Day was observed. In 1968, the Uniform Holiday Monday Act ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Columbus Day, but President Gerald R. Ford later signed a law returning the holiday to Nov. 11.

President Ford wanted to preserve the significance of that sacred day and the singular honor America shows its military veterans.

I love seeing everyone's pictures. They were so young. 

The pictures of relatives and loved ones - their Dads, Moms, Grampas...

...that now include nieces, nephews, sons, and daughters are so handsome in their uniforms... 

...their postures so jaunty.

Their memories... 

...so precious.

...How badass? I read her first letter from Iraq and immediately ordered a diamond ring then prayed she would make it home. Best decision of my life.

And still so proud to wear a uniform. To be an AMERICAN military veteran.

I love, love, love it. 

I just eat it up - sitting here smiling like a crazy woman as I post, because everyone is so proud to be an American military veteran, or to have one - or a legacy -  of service to this wonderful, one-of-a-kind country in their family.

We Americans are very blessed, you know.

And there are few days on the calendar when you feel it more than Veterans Day.

God bless them, every last one of these extraordinary American, everyday patriots whose brotherhood of arms I am privileged to be a part of. 

God bless America.

Happy Veterans Day.