An American hero you never heard about: Raymond Weeks

The greatness of our nation is that there are so many unheralded heroes who have contributed to our history’s shining light. And today is the birthday of one of them, Raymond Weeks (1908-1985), who, quite literally, was the father of Veterans Day. At first glance, the history of the holiday seems clear-cut: Nov. 11 originated in 1918 when the day signaled the Armistice ending World War I. A year later on that date, the burying of the Unknown Soldier took place at Arlington National Cemetery.

The expectation was that from then on, somehow Armistice Day was simply changed to Veterans Day, and that was that. But it wasn’t that simple, and Americans have a little-known serviceman, Raymond Weeks, to thank for this important change in the name for Nov. 11. More about Weeks later.

Armistice Day had a different focus than honoring veterans because Memorial Day was wellestablished by World War I as a holiday for honoring all war dead. Rather, it was committed to an illusory goal of establishing world peace. As President Warren Harding put it on Armistice Day, 1921: “The loftiest tribute we can bestow today is the commitment of this republic to an advancement never made before . ... [L]et us give our influence and our strength, yea of our aspiration and convictions, to put mankind on a little higher plane, exulting and exalting, with war’s distressing and depressing tragedies barred from the stage of righteous civilization .... ”

Even on June 4, 1926, when Congress ordered the president to proclaim each Nov. 11 as Armistice Day, it did so through the same rose-colored glasses, calling it a “day of thanksgiving and prayer and exercises to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

So American policy was geared to getting nations to agree to a pact outlawing war. A boutique group of nations — the U.S., France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia — signed on Aug. 27, 1928, what came to be known as the KelloggBriand pact, named after the American secretary of state and French foreign minister. It renounced war as an instrument of national policy. Just words, no deeds. And, quite inappropriately, Kellogg was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 for his efforts to bring about the agreement.

And as Europe was crumbling with military instability in 1938, Congress made Armistice Day a federal holiday. It again buried its head in the sand, deeming it a day “not to be devoted to the exaltation of glories achieved in war but rather, to an emphasis upon those blessings which are associated with ... peacetime.”

Enter one Raymond Weeks after World War II.

Born in Georgia, Weeks moved with his family to Birmingham, Ala., as a youngster and spent his entire life in the city, attending Birmingham-Southern College. He entered the Navy during World War II not as a youngster but in his 30s, served honorably and was discharged on Nov. 9, 1945.

Weeks’ postwar activities were numerous, including three terms in the Alabama House of Representatives and civic organizations ranging from the March of Dimes to the American Legion to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But it was as organizer for a “National Veterans Day” that Weeks was most noted, petitioning leaders such as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower as early as 1946 and holding the first such event on Nov. 11, 1947, in his hometown.

Weeks became the founder and national chair of the effort. Believing that all veterans should be recognized — and not only those who perished, as was the case for Memorial Day — Weeks petitioned Congress for eight years to rename Nov. 11 as Veterans Day, finally getting GOP Rep. Edward Rees of Kansas to sponsor a bill on Feb. 8, 1954.

Congress agreed, as did President Eisenhower in signing the legislation on June 1, with the first Veterans Day held five months later. But the story doesn’t end there. On Nov. 11, 1982, Weeks received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Ronald Reagan during which he was introduced by special assistant Elizabeth Dole as the “Father of Veterans Day.” Reagan noted that “for more than 50 years, Mr. Weeks has exemplified the finest tradition of American voluntarism by his unselfish service to his country.”

And after Weeks’ passing, a memorial was established in his honor in Birmingham’s Linn Park, with ceremonies there befitting his legacy every Nov. 11.