AMERICA celebrates Veterans Day on November 11 each year. They remember all veterans of the armed forces, including those who died.
In Mesa, Arizona, last year the city centre was closed for several hours for a celebratory parade which included marching bands and decorated floats. The mayor and councillors joined lots of happy people who just walked and threw sweets to children in the crowd.
Restaurants and coffee shops were free to veterans, including the British.
On Sunday, November 13, there was a more solemn event in the Mesa Cemetery: the annual service in memory of the 23 RAF cadets and one American cadet who were killed while training at Falcon Field in the Second World War and are buried there.
All of the graves were decorated with the flags of the US and the UK. The Mesa Caledonian Pipe Band leads a procession with Honor Guards from a local school.
A 21-gun salute was fired and there was a flyover of three training aircraft and a Spitfire.
It struck me that the Americans do "remembrance" so much better than we do. I would like to see the Veterans Day combined with Armistice Day on the traditional date, November 11.
L Mackenzie,
Elmpark View,
York.
Updated: 10:55 Friday, February 17, 2006
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