On this 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of this not-so-brand-new century, I share with you a sobering image that I took when I went to France for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. It's the tombstone of an American Soldier who died and was buried near Verdun, France. In a place where reminders of WWI and death are all over, what struck me about this particular tombstone was that this soldier died on the 10th of November, 1918, the day before the armistice was signed. This tombstone of this soldier from Pennsylvania still sticks out at me, 4 years later.
Today, I try to remember those whose lives were changed because of war, and those who never came home. For me, it's easy because I work as a nurse in the VA Medical system. The one thing with travel, is that if you look carefully, you can appreciate the sacrifice so many other people have made, too. I found this while I was in Nelson, New Zealand-a small country that lost an inordinate amount of people in "the Great War", either on the Western Front in France and Belgium, or in Turkey, during the carnage that was Gallipoli.
On this 11/11/11, I salute those who served.
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