Salute every veteran

It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 99 years ago today when the guns fell silent on the Western Front and the Great War ended. The world wars didn’t have numbers yet because no one knew there would be more than one. That day, this day, Nov. 11, became Armistice Day, and later Veterans Day, when we honor the men — and now the women as well — who served their country and risked their lives.

The days of WWI and WWII and Korea and Vietnam, where there were enemy armies and territory to fight over, are gone. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have ended, but still linger. Now we learn that we have troops fighting and dying in Niger.

But what never changed, from Bunker Hill and Valley Forge to Mosul, are the veterans. They come back having served us as best they could. Some are wounded, but all are able.

The doughboys from WWI are all gone. Those from the Greatest Generation, once 10 million strong, who saved humankind, are dwindling, but the ranks of the vets are still growing every day.

Regardless of their service and their age, whether they were drafted or volunteered, we owe them.

We owe them the best health care there is. We owe them educational benefits. We owe them job placement assistance. We owe them our thanks and gratitude. We owe them everything. For without the vets there never would have been a nation.