11:11:11--A fitting reminder

  • Published
  • By Col. Christopher D. Holmes
  • 325th Mission Support Group commander
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Ninety five years ago, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent on the Western Front. The "war to end all wars" finally drew to a close, leaving in its wake more than 5 million military dead. The terrible tragedy of that war, today known as World War I, seems very remote to us nearly 100 years later, and yet it continues to reverberate today.

While fought on several geographic fronts, in the sea and in the air, most of us know of World War I from what we learned in our high school history class about the Western Front, a contested stretch of ground that ran along France's borders with Belgium and Germany. The horror of trench warfare along that front comprises something unimaginable today. For example, on the first day of the First Battle of the Somme in July 1916, when British troops went "over the top" to attempt a breakthrough of German lines, 57,470 British servicemen became casualties (dead, wounded, missing).

To put that into context, American casualties in eight years of combat in Vietnam number 58,220. That comparison serves merely to underscore the horrific conditions of combat in World War I. But as any combat veteran will tell you, conditions on any field of combat, no matter when or where, are horrific.

Other artifacts of World War I remain with us today. Ever hear the phrase "when the balloon goes up" to indicate when combat operations might begin? That phrase originates from when, prior to an artillery barrage, each side launched observation balloons that could relay target adjustments to artillerymen on the ground. We use the word barrage today to mean any high volume of things thrown our direction, just like the enormous number of artillery shells lobbed by both sides during the war. The term tank to describe an armored vehicle began with the British. In an effort to disguise an experimental method to break through the enemy's trenches, the British figured the enemy might associate large metallic objects described as tanks with items used to hold water or oil, and not realize they were some kind of new weapon.

Lastly, airpower came into being during World War I. Each side used aircraft initially for observation. But, when it became obvious that one had to shoot down the other side's aircraft lest the other side observe friendly troop concentrations and direct artillery barrages in those areas, pilots carried side arms to shoot at enemy pilots and airplanes. Such efforts proved marginally effective. To compensate, designers then fixed machine guns to the aircraft itself, leading to the development of tactics for employing armed aircraft in what today we call aerial combat. Airpower theory of reaching beyond the front to strike at an enemy's rear area to prevent him from continuing to wage war, or striking at the enemy's leadership to cause him to surrender, emerged as war theorists looked for ways to avoid the stalemate and bloodshed in the trenches on the ground. To see that idea from World War I played out in the modern era, we need look no further than the first combat action of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, when stealth fighters dropped munitions on Saddam Hussein's supposed headquarters in downtown Baghdad.

Nearly 100 years later, on the date the belligerent nations of World War I signed an armistice, Americans honor those who endured the horror of that war's trench warfare. But much like other items that had their origin in the First World War, the meaning has changed. Today we take the day to commemorate veterans of all wars who have endured the trials and terrors of combat, not just those from World War I. To me, the words spoken by President Woodrow Wilson during the first commemoration on November 11, 1919 provide as fitting a reminder today as they did then: Every 11th of November provides Americans an opportunity to take a moment for "reflections, filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude..."


1. http://www.cwgc.org/somme/content.asp?id=41&menu=sub
2. http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.html