It wasn’t always called ‘Armed Forces Day’ | ARMED FORCES DAY

Published 1:53 pm Friday, May 20, 2016

This story originally appeared in the Armed Forces 2016 Festival Guide, published May 20, 2016.

The 68th annual Armed Forces Day Parade starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21 in Bremerton.

In the pantheon of great American presidents, there are several perennial names. It seems an almost unanimous conclusion among the American people that the list of our country’s greatest leaders, against which all others are measured, includes at least George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

A name not mentioned often enough  — a man who surely deserves to be counted among these exemplary individuals — is Harry S Truman.

President Truman inherited the position of commander in chief following the sudden passing of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, having only held the position of vice president for 82 days.

With no real experience in the field of foreign policy, let alone wartime decision-making, President Truman undertook the grim task of authorizing the use of the atomic bomb in the ending of the second World War. Within six months of assuming office, he had signed the official charter ratifying the United Nations.

Seemingly at his best during times of conflict, it was arguably President Truman’s policy of containment that enabled the country to avoid actual combat against the Soviet Union, thus beginning the Cold War.

He also authorized the country’s initial involvement in the Korean War. It should come as no surprise then, that a politician dealing so heavily with the military would be the one to create Armed Forces Appreciation Day, which is still recognized annually on the third Saturday of May.

“Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 20, 1950, marks the first combined demonstration by America’s defense team of its progress, under the National Security Act, towards the goal of readiness for any eventuality,” President Truman said in his Presidential Proclamation of Feb. 27, 1950. “It is the first parade of preparedness by the unified forces of our land, sea, and air defense.”

According to an article on the Department of Defense public website, “On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy and Air Force Days.”

It goes on to say that “the single day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department — the Department of Defense.”

The article says that the theme for the first Armed Forces Day was “Teamed for Defense” and was chosen as a means of expressing the unification of all the military forces under a single department of the government.

It was a type of “educational program for civilians,” one in which there would be an increased awareness of the Armed Forces.

The annual event is typically celebrated with parades, military installation “open houses” or public displays and even air shows. Of course, the very nature of the business of defending the nation means that not everyone in the services will be able to enjoy the down time and festivities. Somebody always has to be on duty.

It was a notion addressed very well in a New York Times article published May 17, 1952.

The paper wrote that Armed Forces Day “is the day on which we have the welcome opportunity to pay special tribute to the men and women of the Armed Forces … to all the individuals who are in the service of their country all over the world.

Armed Forces Day won’t be a matter of parades and receptions for a good many of them. They will be in the line of duty and some of them may give their lives in that duty.”

The Times went on to write, “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.”

Regardless of personal politics and beliefs, it is imperative that we as a nation remember that the Armed Forces is an organization that exists primarily for our own protection.

We have finally advanced our national mindset so that the people know you can be against the war and still be for the troops. The men and women of the Armed Forces are our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, our children and our friends.

To give pause and thank them for all that they do, even just once a year, is not too much to ask.

Today, through ever-improving technological advances and a highly qualified all-volunteer based military like no other on the planet, we are closer than ever to achieving what President Truman had called “readiness for any eventuality.”

— Luciano Marano is a U.S. Navy veteran and served aboard the USS Lincoln. He is now a full-time staff writer for the Brainbridge Island Review.