Looking back brings to me a lot of powerful, moving thoughts about this day:The facts are simple enough.  November 11 is Veterans Day.  The day when those of us who have served in America's military think back to what it meant to us.  We are grateful for the opportunity.There have been 11 wars beginning with the American Revolution.  In these conflicts from our founding to today's news reports, a total of 42 million Americans have wartime service in our military..Of this total, 650,000 died in battle.Another 309,000 died from other causes in the theatres where they served..Today we have almost 17.5 million living American veterans of wartime service, about 5.5% of our total population.  So if you know someone who has served in any branch of the service, wartime or peacetime, or both, this is the day to shake his or her hand and to say "Thank you for what you did for us.   We are grateful for your devotion to duty and to our country."***The...(Read Full Post)