It seems odd to think that World War 1 or the Great War ended 100 years ago. It always seemed to be more distant than it actually was to me. probably because the second World War was so much closer.
I don't remember knowing any veterans of the first one, although it seems inevitable that I must have met at least one. Of course I did meet lots of veterans from all the subsequent wars.
The Great War was certainly not great for anyone and it introduced horrors we still worry about today, such as poison gas, tanks, air wars.
We can romanticize some of this, especially the air war parts, but we shouldn't forget they resulted in people dying.
The war was long and bitter and the American part in it was bad enough, but of course the Europeans saw a generation get decimated.
The world that emerged after that war was very different from the one that entered it, with Imperial empires gone in most of Europe and the concept of war as glorious pretty much destroyed.
Unfortunately the peace only lasted long enough for the next generation to go through their own hell 20 years later.
We honor our veterans today and that is something we should do. We honor our war dead on Memorial day so this is a day to commemorate those who survived.
It is of course also the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War, so that needs to be commemorated.
The war was so horrible and fought so bravely that it should be commemorated.
It was a significant event that changed the world.
However the peace didn't last and we had a more horrible one too soon after it.
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