BarryStaff Salutes Our Veterans

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By Scot Feldmeyer – BarryStaff of Cincinnati Newsletter 11/7/11.

BarryStaff would like to take this opportunity to point out that Friday, November 11th is Veterans Day. We salute all those living and passed who served in any branch of the armed forces and made personal sacrifices to help insure our freedom. While not everybody served, the families of our service members also should be saluted for their sacrifices as well. With that in mind we give a heartfelt THANK YOU!

Here are some little known facts about Veterans Day:
– The correct spelling is not Veteran’s Day but Veterans Day. Note that the lack of an apostrophe means that it is a day for Veterans (plural) rather than a day belonging to Veterans (possessive).
– Veterans Day is always celebrated on the 11th day of the 11th month and official celebrations in Washington DC start at Arlington Cemetery at 11:00. Since this is also 2011, Veterans Day this year will officially start at 11:00 on 11/11/11.
– The date and time symbolize the hour and date that Germany signed the armistice to end World War I. It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The holiday was originally known as Armistice Day and was declared as a day “dedicated to the cause of world peace,” by Calvin Coolidge.
– Armistice Day became Veterans Day when President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law in 1954. It was to become a holiday to honor all veterans living and dead.
– The traditional meal on Veterans Day is ravioli (who knew?). This tradition dates back to the ending days of World War I when President Woodrow Wilson, aware that the returning soldiers would be longing for home cooked meals, invited 2,000 soldiers to the White House and helped his staff chefs cook them ravioli, which had just become a mainstay in mainstream American kitchens due to commercial canning.
– It is a state law in Iowa that all businesses give the day off to employees who are veterans if they would ordinarily have to work that day.
– Banks, the Post Office and other “non-essential” federal workers get the day off as well. Federal workers who are required to work on Veterans Day get holiday pay in addition to the regular pay for the day.

Once again we thank all of our Veterans for their service with their special day this Friday.