As summer rapidly approaches most of us think only of the Memorial Day holiday that accompanies the end of the month of May. Not much thought is given Armed Forces Day which is celebrated this Saturday, May 21st.
President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country and on August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days.The single day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under the Department of Defense.
An excerpt from a New York Post article back in 1952 perhaps summed up this holiday best by stating "It is our most earnest hope that those who are in positions of peril, that those who have made exceptional sacrifices, yes, and those who are afflicted with plain drudgery and boredom, may somehow know that we hold them in exceptional esteem. Perhaps if we are a little more conscious of our debt of honored affection they may be a little more aware of how much we think of them."
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