The first Veterans Day was observed on Nov. 11, 1919. First introduced by President Woodrow Wilson and originally called Armistice Day, it was a time meant to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War I. President Dwight D. Eisenhower changed the holiday’s name to Veterans Day in 1954 to include all veterans, not only those who served in the first World War. Since its inception, the U.S. has continued to celebrate Veterans Day on Nov. 11 every year.

A World War II veteran named Raymond Weeks first came up with the idea to change the name and nature of Veterans Day to involve all servicemembers and their families. Weeks led a celebration of the first official Veterans Day in Alabama, and continued this tradition each year until his death in 1985.

There are two days of the year during which the Arlington National Cemetery holds a memorial service, Veterans Day being one of them (Memorial Day is the other). While similar in that they’re both days meant to honor the military, the key difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day is that the former honors both living and fallen veterans, whereas the latter is specifically for soldiers who have died.

Ideas for celebrating Veterans Day

How you choose to commemorate Veterans Day is up to you, but here are a few ideas to help get you started:

Adopt a military family

Many military families who have loved ones in the armed forces sometimes lack the resources to properly take care of themselves. This can be especially problematic for families with a deployed parent, limited income, or severely injured veterans. The Soldiers’ Angels charity foundation hosts an Adopt a Family program so you can offer support to military families in need. This can include gifts for children under 18 years of age and grocery gift cards.

Participate in the two-minute moment of silence

Every Veterans Day, there’s a special time set aside for observing the two-minute moment of silence in honor of servicemembers and their families. To ensure it takes place at the same time for everyone across the U.S., the exact time varies depending on your time zone. Here’s what time it begins in each region:

• 3:11 PM Atlantic Standard Time.
• 2:11 PM Eastern Standard Time.
• 1:11 PM Central Standard Time.
• 12:11 PM Mountain Standard Time.
• 11:11 AM Pacific Standard Time.
• 10:11 AM Alaska Standard Time.
• 9:11 AM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time.

Visit a Veteran Memorial or Cemetery

We mentioned that Arlington National Cemetery holds a commemoration on Veterans Day that’s open to the public. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t visit other veteran memorials or cemeteries to pay your respects in your own way. While this might seem better suited to Memorial Day, there’s no reason you can’t show appreciation for both living and fallen veterans in a similar fashion. You can leave a small token on a gravestone if you like, or you can simply pay your respects for a few moments.

Participate in our Veterans Day social media campaign

Join us in creating a virtual Veterans Honor Wall by honoring and thanking those who have served and played an active role in protecting our great country. Here’s how you can participate:

1. Print out the image.
2. Write in the name of a veteran you want to honor.
3. Share it on your feed.
4. Don’t forget to share the image with us by tagging AFBA and using #AFBAHonorsVeterans.

You can also comment below with your veteran’s name, the branch of service, and an image if available. Use hashtags such as #AFBAHonorsVeterans, #VeteransDay and #VeteransDay2022.

 

Every November since 1993 has been federally recognized as Military Family Appreciation Month. During this month, several military-themed holidays are celebrated. This period is a great opportunity to show your appreciation for both veterans and military families who have loved ones in the armed forces. If you know any of these people in your life or just want to anonymously help out with those you might not know, November is the perfect time to show them you recognize the uncommon challenges they go through.

Military families serve along with their loved servicemembers. They are aware of the risks involved in serving in the armed forces as well as the sacrifice of being away from them during long periods of training and deployment.

The history of Military Family Appreciation Month

In 1993, the Armed Services YMCA looked for a way to honor military families and recognize their sacrifice, dedication, and contributions to the armed forces which they’re an intrinsic part of. Thus, they came up with Military Family Appreciation Month as a time to do exactly that. After being officially endorsed by the President of the United States, November was chosen as the month in which the observation would take place.

What military-related holidays happen in November?

Several important holidays take place in November, and they’re perfect opportunities to plan out your shows of appreciation.

First is the Marine Corps’ Birthday on Nov. 10. This originated in 1921, when Marine Corps Order No. 47 was issued. This order intended to commemorate the founding of the Marine Corps and directed that it be repeated each year on the same day. This day is typically commemorated with the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball. First held in 1925 and observed every year since, the ball includes entertainment, cake, and a formal dinner.

The celebration of the Marine Corps’ birthday has evolved over the years. In 1923, a formal dance was held at the Marine Barracks in Ft. Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, a mock battle occurred at the Washington Navy Yard, and a baseball game was held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Later, in 1925, the first official Birthday Ball was held in Philadelphia. The cake-cutting ceremony began in 1952, which included the first piece of cake being presented to the oldest Marine present and being passed to the youngest as a symbol of the tradition passing.

After that is Veterans Day on Nov. 11. This day is especially important, as it is a federally-recognized holiday specifically meant as a day to pay respect to veterans. The day was originally known as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of World War I, but was later expanded to include all veterans.

Thanksgiving is also a part of Military Family Appreciation Month as one of the ideal times to give thanks to the people in our armed forces who have dedicated their lives to keeping America and its citizens safe from harm. Military families at the Thanksgiving table can use this opportunity to appreciate their loved servicemembers, while non-military families can take the time to show respect to both servicemembers and their families.

However you choose to recognize the holidays during Military Family Appreciation Month, it’s important to always give thanks both to servicemembers and their families so they know they’re loved and appreciated. In addition to the ever-important respect toward the members of the armed forces themselves, remember that the families of servicemembers have their own unique challenges to tackle every day and they deserve recognition just as much as their cherished servicemembers do.

 

National First Responders Day is here on Oct. 28, and it’s a time to honor the efforts of first responders everywhere who work selflessly to keep Americans safe. How can you do that? One of the best things you can do for a first responder is to appreciate the trauma and harsh reality these individuals experience daily.

Helping Our Heroes With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Alcohol Addiction

Being a first responder is one of the most difficult jobs anyone can do. Paramedics, police officers, and firefighters have a sworn duty to protect others in the harshest of conditions. They are the first at the scene to witness scenes of violence, suffering and death while also having to think clearly and remain calm.

This takes a toll on many of them. The proof of this is in the data: According to the Help For Our Heroes Program, 14.6% of paramedics face PTSD at least once in their lifetime, with firefighters having a 7.3% rate and police experiencing a 4.7% rate. Rates of alcohol and drug abuse are also far higher than in the general population. According to a study cited by the Nova Recovery Center, nearly a third of firefighters suffered from alcohol addiction.

Don’t Suffer in Silence: Newport News, Virginia, Holds an Awareness Event for First Responders

With mental health disorders on the rise in the first responder population, there must be hope for these protectors of the people. The first responders of Newport News, Virginia with the local Critical Incident Stress Management Team are trying to help them.

A public meeting was held at the First Baptist Church with the objective of aiding first responders in dealing with the trauma and stress of their professions.

Darius Davis, a Newport News police officer and crisis negotiator, was a speaker at the event. “Suicide affects military, police and first responders 80% more than any other population,” he claims.

Joining him was city fire department Battalion Chief David Lewis. The two have something in common: Both admit to having considered suicide as a solution to their seemingly impossible levels of stress.

Lewis recalls a memory of when he was pulling into a parking lot near his fire station. While trying to cope with the stresses of his job, which included responding to calls involving shootings, stabbings, murder, and suicides, he had lost a child just six hours before. He says he felt he had “no solution” for any of the problems he was dealing with, so he “basically shut down.” Lewis kept his thoughts to himself for nearly two years before finally seeking help. Now, he works to prevent others from suffering as he did, encouraging them to reach out instead of suffering in silence.

Suicide Prevention Month ended in September, a time in which discussions around suicidal thoughts, the stigma of mental health, and the effects they have on preventing many from seeking help are encouraged. Mental health affects people from all walks of life, but in the first responder community, it’s especially problematic as many in the field don’t see any means of relief.

Helping Others First Comes at a Cost, But We’re Making Progress

National First Responders day is a time meant to show appreciation for first responders in everything they do. This includes acknowledging the realities of the job and the toll they take on these paragons of courage. There’s a lot of work to be done, but we’re slowly but surely making it just a bit easier for first responders to continue to selflessly serve us by paying attention to the realities of their experiences.

 

A firefighter is one of the most honorable and difficult positions one can imagine. They’re first responders who are expected to arrive at the scene of any emergency call before anyone else. Having undergone EMT training and being responsible for running headfirst into the thick of danger, it might seem like firefighters know exactly what to do in any situation.

However, firefighters have superior officers, too, and those officers were once firefighters themselves. Being a firefighter is a genuine career that can occupy one’s entire life. There are many ranks of firefighters, from the probationary firefighter all the way up to the fire chief.

Here’s what the career path of a firefighter often looks like:

Probationary firefighter

As soon as someone meets the requirements in the recruit academy, they can start their journey as a probationary firefighter. This period lasts anywhere between 12 and 18 months and requires exemplary commitment and effort.

A probationary firefighter’s job isn’t easy, nor is it supposed to be. Their working hours will be long, and their sleeping periods will be strict. Above all, they’re expected to prove that they’d make a good firefighter, which means that they can get along with others.

Firefighter

If a prospective firefighter can make it through their probationary period, they become an official firefighter. Firefighters have four main jobs, including:

• Extinguishing fires.
• Investigating the causes of fires.
• Aiding anyone who might be injured.
• Helping prevent fires.

A firefighter is also responsible for rescuing people who are in danger, including during incidents not related to fire, such as natural disasters and auto accidents. Because virtually all firefighters have EMT training, they’re prepared to protect those in danger and administer first aid to anyone in need.

Driver engineer

These are the individuals who drive the fire truck and are duty-bound to get people in and out of a call safely.

Driver engineers need to have mastered the ins and outs of fire apparatus systems, fire trucks, equipment, and water supplies to do their job effectively because they’re responsible for all of these things.

Lieutenant

The firefighter lieutenant is capable of all the tasks of a driver engineer, plus ensuring the function of the fire department. They’re responsible for inspecting buildings to make sure they don’t have any fire hazards and conducting training exercises to prepare for special emergencies such as earthquakes and chemical spills.

Captain

A firefighter captain is responsible for managing their station. When at the scene of a fire, the captain assesses the situation and plans a course of action for firefighters to follow.

Depending on the size of the station, a firefighter captain may have staff working under them or, as the most senior officer at the station, be responsible for the operations of the entire unit.

Battalion chief

The battalion chief is the first rank of all the chief officers. Similar to other ranks, they’re responsible for fire safety compliance, equipment operation, staff evaluations, and making sure the station is in top shape. They have the additional task of being responsible for all officers under them, from the captain on down.

Assistant chief

Assistant chiefs are the second in command, taking over when the fire chief is out. They assist the fire chief in all tasks, including strategic and operational planning for fire stations. Having mastered the previous ranks, they’re extremely capable individuals.

Fire chief

Fire chiefs are the head honchos of the fire department. These individuals are responsible for strategizing and collaborating with local government officials to ensure the fire department is prepared for anything and to prevent disasters from happening in the first place.

 

Since the war on drugs officially began in 1971 under President Nixon, U.S. armed forces have been deployed in areas where drugs run rampant in an effort to reduce the number of narcotics entering the country. The U.S. government and its armed forces have stepped up tremendously in their efforts, with over $1 trillion spent on the war on drugs since its inception.

The war on drugs is still ongoing and shows no signs of ending any time soon, but that doesn’t mean the U.S. armed forces are going to idly sit by and watch drug smugglers and criminal organizations succeed. On the contrary: There have been numerous efforts to interrupt the flow of narcotics and keep both the U.S. and other countries safe from harm.

U.S. Coast Guard helps seize $475M worth of drugs from smugglers

The Navy is a key part of the U.S. armed forces’ contributions to the war on drugs. This year, a U.S. ship cooperated with a Royal Netherlands Navy vessel to confiscate $475M worth of drugs from smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. This included 3,892 pounds of marijuana and 24,700 pounds of cocaine. The seizure was ultimately hauled in and unloaded in Miami Beach.

Cdr. Jeremy M. Greenwood, the commanding officer of the 270-foot cutter stationed in Virginia named the Legare, praised the crew responsible for the bust, citing their commitment to duty. He also applauded the various crews who contributed both to the mission and the ongoing counter-drug campaign, which included the “dismantling of transnational criminal organizations.” He proudly claimed the operation “will result in significantly fewer drug-related overdoses.”

The U.S. Air Force sends help to Curacao to combat narcotics trafficking

40 miles off the coast of Venezuela is the island of Curacao. This nation is a Caribbean island that has a close alliance with the U.S. Together, they’ve spent two decades fighting international narcotics trafficking and transnational criminal organizations in the area. In 2020, those efforts gained a big boost in the form of extra equipment and personnel.

After the U.S. State Department accused Venezuela of drug trafficking, they sent four U.S. Air Force aircrafts to the island. These planes were meant to run detection and monitoring operations in an effort to interrupt the flow of drugs coming from Venezuela and surrounding areas.

The armaments introduced included an E-3 Sentry surveillance aircraft, an E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System plan, and two KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircrafts. Combined, these new assets, in addition to 200 extra personnel at the Cooperative Security Location (CSL), should give Curacao a leg up on drug trafficking operations in the area.

Air strikes used to destroy Taliban drug labs

Afghanistan has a primarily opiate-based economy. While the U.S. was still attempting to occupy Afghanistan in 2018, the U.S. armed forces, together with the Afghan military, targeted drug labs for precision air strikes. The U.S. Air Force’s F22A Raptor aircraft armed with small-diameter bombs were used to minimize civilian casualties.

The U.S. military has worked hand-in-hand with many foreign governments and entities in an effort to reduce drug trafficking and the spread of drugs into the U.S. and internationally. While the efforts are still ongoing, the U.S. armed forces have made significant progress in interfering with transnational criminal organizations and drug smugglers across the world. While the war on drugs persists, the U.S. armed forces constantly look for ways to help end it.

 

In many ways, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are vastly superior to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. While it’s true that they’re environmentally friendly and arguably vital to stopping the damage to nature caused by carbon emissions, it’s also a fact that EVs are very, very fast and comparatively much easier to maintain. This makes them superb vehicles for first responders.

With the planned switch to EVs comes some challenges, however, as these vehicles are wildly different from their predecessors in ways that first responders need to anticipate. A few companies are preparing for exactly that.

EVs are being introduced to the New York Police Department

What does a 480-horsepower all-electric police interceptor look like? It looks exactly like the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, the police interceptor version of which was presented in Apr. 2022 at the Javits Center for the New York International Auto Show.

With the advent of EVs and their colossal growth that’s set to overtake sales of gasoline-powered vehicles as soon as 2025 by some estimates, the NYPD stepped up and purchased its first Tesla Model 3 EV to be used as a patrol vehicle in 2021. By the middle of Apr. 2022, New York City approved the purchase of 250 more. Now, intending to be carbon-neutral by 2050, NYC has begun an initiative to make its entire vehicle lineup completely electric by 2035 starting this year with the Mach-E GT.

Out of a variety of potential EV police interceptors, the Mach-E GT scored the highest for sheer acceleration — able to hit 60 mph from zero in 3.5 seconds — and braking. The Mach-E GT is capable of traveling 270 miles on a full charge with its 88 kWh battery pack.

GM is introducing an EV First Responder Training program

As part of GM’s new EV lineup, which includes the Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Hummer EV, and Chevrolet Bolt, the company is advancing a training program for first responders to introduce them to the unique challenges that EVs hold in situations involving them.

For example, unlike traditional gasoline-powered vehicles, EVs place much of the weight in the vehicle at the bottom. This is where the battery pack is typically located, often weighing thousands of pounds. It’s not just the redistributed weight that can make rescuing the people inside a challenge, it’s also the sheer amount of energy that’s stored in the battery pack.

The courses combine live presentations, virtual demonstrations, videos, and discussions from experts. GM encourages both first responders and owners of EVs to take advantage of its program.

GM isn’t the only company involved in training first responders

In addition to GM’s efforts, Tesla maintains a dedicated website intended for first responders. Its purpose is for “helping the fire departments and first responders safely handle emergency situations involving all Tesla products.” Included are “emergency response guides” and “quick response sheets,” individually produced for many of their vehicles.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) maintains its own Emergency Response Guides compiled from over 60 manufacturers for first responders to use as reference. From newer companies such as Lucid to established brands such as Ford and Jeep, all of its guides are free to download and readily available.

The advantages of EVs make them excellent vehicles for first responders both from a performance and maintenance standpoint. Nonetheless, while these benefits are numerous, there are still some challenges to overcome before they can become mainstream for first responder units. These groups need to be aware of the hazards and mechanical differences inherent to these cars and trucks to avoid unnecessary injury. Companies such as GM and Tesla as well as the NFPA are attempting to make the switch as seamless as possible so first responders can take advantage of these new vehicles.

 

March is International Women’s Month and March 8th is the specific day devoted annually to remembering the impact and importance of gender equality. The day has been celebrated in America since 1975 when its recognition was encouraged by the United Nations. Let’s take the time to learn a little more about how it came to exist and honor some inspiring American women.

The roots of International Women’s Day
While the U.S.A. did not celebrate the holiday until the ’70s, international recognition began much earlier than that. The first noted Day of the Woman was around 1910 when Clara Zetkin suggested that a day be set aside internationally at a meeting of the International Congress of Working Women. The meeting, which was in Copenhagen, eventually brought the day to become celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland the next year.

The significance of March 8th is also important. This was the first day of a historical strike led by women, in hopes to secure the right to vote in Russia in 1917. The strike ultimately led to the Russian Tsar being overthrown and women being given the right to vote in Russia.

American women to recognize this year
This year, the 2022 International Women’s Day campaign theme is Break the Bias. According to the campaign website, “Whether deliberate or unconscious, the bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead. Knowing that bias exists isn’t enough, action is needed to level the playing field.” Here are some women in the American Government who have broken the bias and cleared the path for many other women to find success:

Maxine Waters
Congresswoman Maxine Waters was elected in November 2018 and is serving her 15th term in the House of Representatives in the 43rd Congressional District of California. She received 70% of the vote and her constituency continues to rely on her to represent them and their needs. She represents the diverse population of South Los Angeles. She was the first woman and first African American Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Congresswoman Waters has a long history of shaping public policy and breaking down social barriers.

Liz Cheney
Congresswoman Liz Cheney represents Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the only member of congress to do so and has been in office since 2016. According to her website, “Cheney sits on the House Armed Services Committee and also serves as the Vice-Chair for the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.” Aside from her current role of leadership, she served at the State Department as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East. She was also a lawyer and speaks with authority as a Fox News Analyst.

Sonia Sotomayor
Now a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, Sonia Sotomayor graduated in 1976 from Princeton with the University’s highest academic honor and continued to earn a degree from Yale Law School. Sotomayor served as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from 1979–1984. She was first nominated in 2009 and has served since. In 2019, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

These are only a few of the inspiring women who serve us through our government. Take the time this March 8th to consider the massive strength of those brave women who took a stand and fought for equality and those who continue the tradition today.