The White Falcon - 10.11.1978, Page 1

r
Marines
celebrate
203rd
birthday
The use of fighting men as part
of the regular complement of ships
of war was common to the maritime
states of Greece at least five hun-
dred years before the Christian Era.
An organization of Marines, as
a regular branch of American
service, was formed by an.act of
the Continental Congress passed on
November 10, 1775.
Today marks the 203rd birthday
of the United States Marine Corps.
The Marines at Naval Station
Keflavik will be celebrating the
event beginning at 1 p.ra. today
with a memorial service at the
station chapel. Tonight the
Marines will be partaking in the
annual Marine Ball at the Officers
Club. Captain Thomas J. Keene,
NavStaKef Commanding Officer will
be the guest of honor for the
event.

Veterans Day
celebrated tomorrow
It is particularly fitting that
Veterans Day should be returned
this year to the traditional Nov.
11 Armistice Day observance, since
1978 marks the 60th anniversary
of the silencing of the guns of
World War I.
The hostilities, which began
late in July 1914, were suspended
on the eleventh hour of the
eleventh day of the eleventh month
of 1918. At war's end, General
John J . Pershing said to the men of
the American Expeditionary Forces:
"The enemy has capitulated. It is
fitting that I address myself in
thanks directly to the officers ahd
soldiers of the American Expedition-
ary Forces who by their heroic
efforts -fhave made possible this
glorious result. Our armies,
hurriedly raised and hastily
trained, met a veteran enemy, and
by cpurage, discipline and skill
always defeated him..."
The World War I armistice led to
spontaneous and boisterous demon-
strations in the United States and
all over the world. Then veterans
returned to their civilian
pursuits, Those who did not lie
under the fields of crosses
scattered across Europe. In the
following years, Armistice Day cere-
monies were always led by the
contingents of former doughboys.
As age reduced their ranks, they
have been given the place of honor
: i-«/ * )
at the head of processions on Arm-
istice Day and the subsequent
Veterans Day.
The war dead are also especially
honored. Focal point ^or the
Nation's memorial servicers on.
Veterans Day is the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier in Arlington
National Cemetery, located in
Virginia just across the Potomac
River from Washington, D.C.
In 1920, two years after the
WWI Armistice, an unknown French
soldier was bpried under the Arc de
Triomphe in Paris, France, while
across the English Channel, a
British unknown soldier was buried
in Westminster Abbey in London,
England.
The following year, a U.S.
unknown soldier was buried in
Arlington National Cemetery with
honors such as the Nation's capita.'
had not seen since the end of the
Civil War. The remains of uniden-
tified war dead from subsequent
U.S. wars have also been interred
there at^the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier.
continued on page 2