Today is not a day for car sales and discount prices on 'everything'. It is a day to remember those (all of them) who fought for us, and their countries.

In this, we are not meant to pick apart the politics and reasons for the war, almost all of which were wrong, preventable, and staged. We are meant to honor those who selflessly fought for their country.

My father fought in the Pacific during WWII. My step-mother served during the African Campaign.

My grandfather fought in WWI. He was a sailor stationed on the mine layer U. S. S. Husatonic. She was named for the first ship sunk by a submarine, which was during the Civil War. She was purposely a wooden hulled ship, as were the other three mine layers. The images shown are from my grandfather's picture book of the war. During this time, a personal camera was very rare.

The campaign she served in was called 'The Great North Sea Mine Barrage'. During WWI, they did not have the technology used later. The reasons for heavily mining the North Sea were many, but primarily, it was meant to stop all ships carry supplies into her harbors, thus starving Germany into surrender. This brutal method of warfare is as old as man, and yes, it worked.

I have a friend in England who is an archeologist with many master's certificates, and he told me, 'One of the things that hastened the end of the war was America's entry, because the American soldiers threw away so much food, the German soldiers were picking through their dump sites. These soldiers wondered that the Americans had so much, and they virtually had nothing.'

Later studies showed Germany, itself, was extremely short of food.

After the war, the mine layers were again employed to clear away the mines they had laid. There is another picture in his album showing the ship as she headed home. Every ship, upon leaving, flew a sixty foot three color ribbon. After departure, each sailor was given a piece of this ribbon, which is also in his book, along with the picture of it happily flying.

There is a monument to this campaign in Philadelphia with one of the mines on display.

I grew up with an entire generation of adults who answered their nation's call and served. Even my step-mother had been an army nurse and served in the African Campaign. Most of them were alcoholics. All of them had stories; but we children only ever heard the funny ones - the time the nurses in Africa were given a 50 gallon drum of peanut butter - the story of my father's dog coming home to him after being 'de-trained' - my grandfather's anchor tattoo which he couldn't even remember getting because he was so drunk.

My father told me he'd never been under fire. I later found an article on his wall showing him sitting on the wall of a Japanese naval gun. They had stormed the gun, and the story quoted my father as saying, 'I guess I didn't get hit because I could run faster than the other guys.' (he was a very good athlete)

This day is meant as a moment for the survivors, and the rest of us living, to remember those who couldn't run as fast as my father.

We should also remember that; war is ugly. It flies in the face of every belief man holds close to his heart.

The only question after our remembrance should be; 'why'?

Vixyy Fox