Veterans Day

Orignis of the Veterans Day and the Veterans Adminstration (VA)

Origins and Significance

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

Veterans Day traces its origins back to the end of World War I, a conflict often referred to as “the war to end all wars.” On November 11, 1918, at the eleventh hour, the armistice that ended hostilities on the Western Front took effect. This momentous event marked the cessation of fighting between the Allied nations and Germany, bringing a hard-fought peace after years of devastating conflict.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as Armistice Day, a day set aside to honor the veterans of World War I and the sacrifices made to secure peace. The idea was to create a solemn occasion to remember those who fought and to cherish the hard-won peace.

The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.

On a snowy day in November 11, 1918, the troops on both sides were tired of fighting. It wasn’t the generals, it was the soldiers. They had just said we have enough of the trenches, the death and just didn’t want to keep going.

The Veterans of the all of the wars show us courage, strength and resilience in all of our wars. It is the soldiers that make up the army. It is the their bravery in all of the skirmishes and unknown conflict that keeps the peace and are the backbone of each war. War brings misery but also innovation on a great scale.

Humans have been at war for as history has been around. That is why we have written word of war and conflict.

On this day, we honor the living soldier, the one that makes this world possible.

A history of veterans also has a history of care. That is why the Veterans Administration was created to treat the original PTSD. Shell shock.

Below is a brief history according to the Veterans Administration itself.

1636

The United States has the most comprehensive system of assistance for veterans of any nation in the world. This benefits system traces its roots back to 1636, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony were at war with the Pequot Indians. The Pilgrims passed a law which stated that disabled soldiers would be supported by the colony.

1771

Prior to U.S. military efforts, Austrian physician Josef Leopold (1761) wrote about “nostalgia” among soldiers. Among those who were exposed to military trauma, some reported missing home, feeling sad, sleep problems, and anxiety. This description of PTSD-like symptoms was a model of psychological injury that existed into the Civil War.

1776

The Continental Congress of 1776 encouraged enlistments during the Revolutionary War by providing pensions for soldiers were disabled. Direct medical and hospital care given to veterans in the early days of the Republic was provided by individual States and communities.

George Washington stated

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”

1865

VHA originated from the first Federal soldiers’ facilities established for Civil War Veterans.

On March 3, 1865 — a month before the Civil War ended and the day before his second inauguration — President Abraham Lincoln signed a law to establish a National Soldiers and Sailors Asylum.

1873

Renamed as the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) in 1873, it was the first-ever Government institution created specifically for honorably discharged volunteer soldiers. The first national home opened November 1, 1866, in Togus, Maine.

1919

In 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11th as the first observance of Armistice Day, the day World War I ended.

At that time, some symptoms of present-day PTSD were known as “shell shock” because they were seen as a reaction to the explosion of artillery shells. Symptoms included panic and sleep problems, among others. Shell shock was first thought to be the result of hidden damage to the brain caused by the impact of the big guns.

Thinking changed when more soldiers who had not been near explosions had similar symptoms. “War neuroses” was also a name given to the condition during this time.

1921

In 1921, Congress established the Veterans Bureau by consolidating the administration and functions of those three agencies. The World War Veterans Act of June, 1924 authorized the furnishing of hospitalization so far as existing government facilities permitted to veterans of any war, military occupation, or military expedition since 1897 not dishonorably discharged and without regard to nature or origin of their disabilities.

1925

In 1925, the Veterans Bureau established its first clinical research program and began publishing a monthly medical journal aimed at understanding and improving issues common among Veterans including TB, cancer, and mental health.

1926

On Friday, Thursday, June 4, 1926, Veterans Day became a holiday

In 1926, the Red Cross withdrew its social workers from the Veterans Bureau neuropsychiatric hospitals and casework positions in the regional offices. However, many former Red Cross psychiatric social workers remained on the job until 1927

Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and

Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.

1930

The Veterans Administration was created by Executive Order 5398, signed by President Herbert Hoover on July 21, 1930. At that time, there were 54 hospitals, 4.7 million living Veterans, and 31,600 employees.

1933

The Board of Veterans Appeals was established.

1945

Within days of Germany’s surrender in May 1945, General Omar N. Bradley received word of his next assignment: he had been handpicked by President Harry S. Truman to replace Frank T. Hines as the next head of the Veterans Administration. For Bradley, who had commanded the 12th Army Group, the largest American fighting force ever assembled, in the campaign that liberated France and brought Germany to its knees, the president’s summons came as a shock. As he recalled in his autobiography, “I knew absolutely nothing about the Veterans Administration.”1

To see the history of the VA and their undersecretaries

Go to this website

VA History Summary — Department of Veterans Affairs

Shell, Shock, PTSD and effects of war

World War II (1938–1945)

💡In past wars and in the opening days of World War II, the War Department believed that soldiers suffering from combat fatigue had an underlying, pre-existing mental condition.

This is the term used before for “shell shock” “ Nostalgia,” “Old Sergeant’s Disease,” or “Shell Shock,” was now appropriately termed, “Combat Fatigue”.

Guadalcanal Campaign, the US military learned that a serviceman’s ability to survive the psychological rigors of combat could not be predicted. The point was driven home when in 1943, one of the nation’s elite fighting forces suffered significant psychiatric casualties. More than 500 marines returning from Guadalcanal were treated for symptoms such as tremors, sensitivity to loud noises, and periods of amnesia — the condition was termed “Guadalcanal Disorder.”

Normandy

During the Normandy Campaign, army psychologists noted that the combat effectiveness of troops sharply declined after 30 days of combat. After 45 days, troops were in a near vegetative state. Psychiatrist John Appel, who studied combat exhaustion cases during the Battle of Monte Cassino and Anzio Campaign, came to the sobering conclusion that,

“Practically all men in rifle battalions who are not otherwise disabled ultimately became psychiatric casualties.”

Military medicine finally conceded that it wasn’t a question of “if” a soldier would break in combat, but a question of when.

During World War II, it is estimated that only one million men (or roughly one out of every 16 service members) saw what could be considered sustained combat. This group, however, accounts for the majority of the war’s casualties. Even when enemy bullets and shrapnel failed to kill or physically wound, they inflicted casualties nonetheless. More than half a million service members suffered some sort of psychiatric collapse due to combat. Alarmingly, 40 percent of medical discharges during the war were for psychiatric conditions. The vast majority of those can be attributed to combat stress.

1870–1871

Accounts of psychological symptoms following military trauma date back to ancient times. The American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) mark the start of formal medical attempts to address the problems of military Veterans exposed to combat.

European descriptions of the psychological impact of railroad accidents also added to early understanding of trauma-related conditions.

A second model of this condition suggested a physical injury as the cause of symptoms. “Soldier’s heart” or “irritable heart” was marked by a rapid pulse, anxiety, and trouble breathing. U.S. doctor Jacob Mendez Da Costa studied Civil War soldiers with these “cardiac” symptoms and described it as overstimulation of the heart’s nervous system, or “Da Costa’s Syndrome.” Soldiers were often returned to battle after receiving drugs to control symptoms.

The thought that physical injury led to PTSD-like symptoms was supported by European reports of “railway spine.” As rail travel became more common, so did railway accidents. Injured passengers who died had autopsies that suggested injury to the central nervous system. Of note, Charles Dickens was involved in a rail accident in 1865 and wrote about symptoms of sleeplessness and anxiety as a result of the trauma.

💡In spite of this evidence, the British Army continued to try to differentiate those whose symptoms followed explosive exposure from others.

In 1915, the British Army in France was instructed that: “‘Shell-shock and shell concussion cases should have the letter W prefixed to the report of the casualty, if it was due to the enemy: in that case the patient would be entitled to rank as “wounded” and to wear on his arm a “wound stripe”.’ If, however, the man’s breakdown did not follow a shell explosion, it was not thought to be ‘due to the enemy’; and he was to [be] labelled ‘Shell-shock, S’ (for sickness) and was not entitled to a wound stripe or a pension.”[11]: 29

However, it often proved difficult to identify which cases were which, as the information on whether a casualty had been close to a shell explosion or not was rarely provided.[8]: 1642Treatment

There, casualties received a dose of Sodium Amytal which is a barbiturate that is for insomnia which put them into a deep sleep for a period of up to 48 hours; afterwards they ate a hot meal, showered and put on a clean uniform, then they were evaluated by medical personnel.

Most responded positively to the treatment and 50 to 70 percent of combat exhaustion cases were returned to combat within three days.

More severe cases were sent to hospitals and never returned to combat.

Although the term “shell shocked” is typically used in discussions of WWI to describe early forms of PTSD, its high-impact explosives–related nature provides modern applications as well.

After the war, Americans returning from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific were eager to get on with their lives. One benefit for returning servicemen was an unemployment payment of $20.00 a week for a year with no stipulations on how the money was spent; returning servicemen called it the “52/20 club.” Many used the time the program afforded them to relax and process traumatic experiences from the war.

Some veterans quickly grew bored of civilian life as it paled in comparison to the overstimulation that only combat provides. As a result many came home as adrenaline junkies. Numerous auto racing and motorcycle clubs were formed by groups of returning veterans in the immediate postwar years.

For many veterans, the symptoms of combat fatigue or combat stress faded once they returned home. For others, the symptoms were long lasting and function impairing. Combat stress can morph into Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which begins to appear in the affected individual after the traumatic experiences have passed.

One of the most prevalent symptoms of PTSD is avoidance, not wanting to talk about it. In the decades that followed the war, and to the chagrin of many baby-boomers growing up, their parents never spoke about the war.

During their deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 380,000 U.S. troops, about 19% of those deployed, were estimated to have sustained brain injuries from explosive weapons and devices.[27] This prompted the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to open up a $10 million study of the blast effects on the human brain.

The study revealed that, while the brain remains intact immediately after low-level blast effects, the chronic inflammation afterwards is what ultimately leads to many cases of shell shock and PTSD.[28] As of 2024, the Department of Defense allocates nearly $1 billion annually to study brain damage.[29]

Conclusion

War is hell. Our soldiers deserve our best and have not been treated well over the arc of history. We need the soldiers to have peace. We also need them to be able to live in normal life. Veterans are the backbone of our country.

Thank someone for thier service because we wouldn’t be there without them. They go through hell and will continue to until they can’t.

Source:

The History and Significance of Veterans Day in the U.S. | RiverBender.com

History of Veterans Day — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Origin & History of Department of Veteran Affairs | South Shore Press

Social Welfare History Project U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: A History

History of PTSD in Veterans: Civil War to <em>DSM-5</em> — PTSD: National Center for PTSD

Shell shock — Wikipedia

VA History Summary — Department of Veterans Affairs

The Origins of Veterans Day | Military.com

WWII Post-Traumatic Stress | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans