Did you know that there are fewer than 100 World War I veterans still alive in the United States? And the average age for a surviving combatant in World War II is 89? Will we forget?

The origins of Veterans’ Day begin in 1918 when the guns from the first world war went silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. At the time it was called “the war to end all wars.” It was first called Armistice Day for the armistice signed to mark the final day of war and it was made a holiday in honor of its veterans.

WWI was truly the first epic demonstration of necessity, the mother of invention, fiercely colliding with the technology of the industrial revolution. A prelude to modern warfare with the machine gun, gas, planes, even camouflage being revolutionized.

Also transportation, communication and everything else leapt forward, creating a potential for abuse and carnage unimaginable in their time.

The turn of the century with cowboys still herding cattle in the west and Samurai still worshipping the art of war in the east, the stage of what was only 100 years earlier colonial Europe exploded in death.