Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department — the Department of Defense.
William Hase-1/13/1921 – N/A, Branch: Army, Rank: Corporal, Outfit: 96th Division…
Jerome Sigmund, 4/3/1934 – N/A, Branch: Marines, Rank: Corporal, Outfit: Air wing, Service Dates: 1954 – 1956
My name is Nicholas Rider. I’m 14 and last year I published my first book. How’s that? you ask. Well, it started with my grandfather. Grandpa was a veteran of World War II, and maybe because I loved building model airplanes, I always used to ask him about what he’d done in the war. He was pretty modest about it. “Not a whole lot,” he said.