LED BY HARRY S. Truman, Armed Forces Day was formally established and designated to be celebrated on the third Saturday in May each year. The week prior, is Armed Forces Week. This year Armed Forces Day falls on Saturday the 19th of May.

There are only a few days on the annual calendar when we duly recognize the sacrifices made by the members and families of the United States Armed Forces, and veterans—each has unique purposes, ceremonies and traditions.

Of course, many know that Armistice Day is now Veteran's Day and always falls on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month—November 11th each year when World War I, "The War to End All Wars" officially ended. The formal purpose for Veteran's Day is to honor all of our living veterans.

The most popular military holiday is Memorial Day which falls on the last Monday of May and is the only three-day weekend federal holiday. Memorial Day is designated as the one day a year that we solemnly honor all of our military dead—it is not a celebration as its purpose is a day of reflection, gratitude, prayer and mourning for all of our patriots that have passed. Formal public ceremonies take place all over America at designated Veteran's Cemeteries and private grave-sites.

We have Flag Day in June as well as the Army birthday every June 14th. The Navy celebrates their birthday on August 26th and the Marines birthday is on November 10th of each year. All three in 1775, pre-dating America's formal Independence Day in 1776. The Air Force birthday, as a separate service from the Army Air Corps, is officially on September 18th, 1947—and it is now considered the premier military service branch.

Conversely, each component within our military services, our National Guard and our Reserve Forces, celebrate their birthdays on officially designated dates based on when each was legally authorized by Presidential Proclamations and Congressional Acts.

So, why was Harry Truman committed to the idea of a separate date to be designated as Armed Forces Day? Because, Armed Forces Day recognizes all Americans currently serving in any of our military branches and components—those sacrificing today! It is in the spirit of our individual and family sacrifices and collective teamwork that makes this day unique and important!

It is that same sense of collective teamwork we now see manifesting itself as Democrats publicly speak out in strong support of our troops and our veterans. Since winning back a majority in the House of Representatives and a narrow margin in the Senate—Democrats are trying hard to re-build our squandered military infrastructure that Bush has broken!
Likewise, Democrats are doing their best to re-instate critical Veteran's Administration budget line items that have been cut to the bone, under-funded or done entirely away with by the Republican leaders who have proven they do not truly support our troops and care far too little about our veterans when our wounded warriors come home to heal.

Approximately half a trillion dollars have been spent in Iraq. Billions have been lost and are unaccounted. Can you imagine how much good this money could have done to help our needy, like our disabled veterans, our mentally ill and our poor? Millions of people have been displaced and driven from their homes. Hundreds of thousands have been injured and wounded. There is no accurate accounting of how many Iraqi civilians have been killed and thousands of Americans have paid the ultimate price of death over the past four long years. Iraq is a war that belongs to Bush and the Republican leaders—it's way past time for individual citizens, working with like-minded groups, to take action!

Most recently, in that same spirit of teamwork, led by Nevada State Senate Minority Leader, our beloved Senator Dina Titus, the Democrats have taken the extraordinary position to courageously call upon all of the State Governors to Petition the President to thank our National Guard members for their current service and sacrifice and release them (from active duty) in Iraq so they can come home to be with their families by this Thanksgiving! This is the perfect first step, in the long process, to end an Unjust War!

Our National Guard forces were formed in each State primarily to provide disaster relief and security services to Guard the Nation—the Guard was never intended to be a second Reserve force and deployed out of the Continental U.S. in any foreign wars!

I'd like to encourage everyone to please go to www.dinatitus.com and click on the link to sign the very important petition in support of Nevadans and our National Guard.

Our voices, collectively in that same spirit of teamwork that demonstrates the unity of our Armed Forces Day, needs to be heard! We can speak out against the Unjust War in Iraq AND support our troops! Now is the time to take a stand, speak out, send e-mails and faxes to all of our elected representatives, and say "We Truly Support Our Troops and Veterans"—it is time to bring them home and fully fund the Veteran's Administration!

That is truly our duty as patriotic American citizens!