[Vision2020] Corrections to my Veterans Day piece

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Hail to the Vision:

I've heard from a military man who corrected me on one aspect of my column on Veterans Day.  He said that planes loaded with coffins from Iraq and Afghanistan arrive at all times of the day and that service men are there to salute them in private ceremonies.

Here is the corrected and expanded last paragraph:

Since 2003, over 2,800 flag-draped coffins have arrived at Dover Air Force Base without any public recognition. The Seattle Times published a photo of the inside of a plane loaded with 20 coffins as it prepared to depart from Kuwait.  The photographer, Tami Silico, was fired from her job as a civilian contractor for violating a Pentagon policy that has been in place since 1991. This is yet another means to shield the American public from the unnecessary sacrifices in this disastrous war.  In the Vietnam War 58, 198 soldiers died for nothing, Vietnam, and now these brave men and women have also died in vain.

A retired journalism professor also mentioned something that I knew, but chose not to include.  The holiday was called Armistice Day until it was changed in 1954.  

He also corrected my punctuation, claiming that my singular possessive Veteran's was rare, Veterans' was common, but evidentally the journalistic rule is "Veterans Day" and "Veterans Administration" with no apostrophe at all.  I regret the errors.

Nick Gier

Your life is a test.  If it had been a real life, you would have been given proper instructions.