Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Veterans Day

Veterans Day Parade 2014-11-08 2

Today is Veterans Day in the United States, when we honor the men and women who served in our military forces. The occasion is taken very seriously these days. It's common to hear civilians saying "thank you for your service" to uniformed personnel. However, people of my age remember the scorn and derision heaped on veterans returning from the Vietnam War. Times change. Attitudes change.

The annual parade in STL takes place on the Saturday before the event. There are usually more people marching down the street than observers on the sidewalk. One of this year's features was a bald eagle, the quintessential American symbol, held by a staff member of the St. Louis Wild Bird Sanctuary.                            

Veterans Day Parade 2014-11-08 1

7 comments:

Stefan Jansson said...

A magnificent bird. I like how you framed the second photo. Times have changed since the Vietnam war, but we still enjoy killing each other.

Pat said...

Yes, I remember the Vietnam derision.... Love especially the first photo.

Birdman said...

Life moves forward, and hopefully we learn from our mistakes.

cieldequimper said...

If only Humans would learn...

William Kendall said...

Such a magnificent bird.

Here today we had even more people in the surroundings around our war memorial than usual, and we don't tend to see a shortage in crowds as it is for today.

Halcyon said...

Beautiful eagle...

PerthDailyPhoto said...

What a striking image Bob, quite a pose from eagle and handler! It really was a disgrace the way the Vietnam soldiers were treated.