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Veterans Day 2021: Home

November 11
Veterans Day November 11
Veterans Day honors all who have served in the United States Armed Forces
Through an act of Congress, Veterans Day became a legal holiday in the United States in 1938. November 11th was previously known as Armistice Day and honored the end of World War 1 until President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially changed the name in 1954.
To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory. Woodrow Wilson
Each year on November 11th the Veterans Day National Ceremony is held at Arlington National Cemetery. It is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces.
Veterans Day also coincides with Remembrance Day in Australia and in Canada, a holiday that commemorates the end of the First World War and also recognizes each nation’s veterans.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated [this ground], far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. Abraham Lincoln
How is Veterans Day observed? Many cities host parades, marathons, musical performances, and military demonstrations to celebrate and thank veterans on Veterans Day. The American flag may also hang at half-mast, and, at 11 a.m., many observe a period of silence.

In the Library

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American Sniper

A member of Navy SEAL Team 3 describes his life as a father and husband, and as the serviceman with the most confirmed sniper kills in the history of the United States military while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Black Hawk Down

Recounts a 1993 firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia, that resulted in the deaths of eighteen Americans and more than five hundred Somalis, examining the rationales behind the disastrous raid.

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Code Talker: A Novel

After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.

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Eat the Apple: A Memoir

Matt Young joined the Marine Corps at age eighteen. The teenage wasteland he fled followed him to the training bases charged with making him a Marine. Matt survived the training and then not one, not two, but three deployments to Iraq. Visceral, ironic, self-lacerating, and ultimately redemptive, Young's story drops us unarmed into Marine Corps culture and lays bare the absurdism of 21st-century war, the manned-up vulnerability of those on the front lines, and the true, if often misguided, motivations that drove a young man to a life at war.

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Forgotten

In the early hours of June 6, 1944, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers, landed on the beaches of France. Their orders were to man a curtain of armed balloons meant to deter enemy aircraft. One member of the 320th would be nominated for the Medal of Honor, an award he would never receive. Drawing on newly uncovered military records and dozens of original interviews with surviving members of the 320th and their families, Linda Hervieux tells the story of these heroic men charged with an extraordinary mission, whose contributions to one of the most celebrated events in modern history have been overlooked.

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Flyboys: A True Story of Courage

Relates the story of eight American airmen who were shot down over Chichi Jima during World War II, one of whom was rescued and later became president of the United States, and the other seven who were captured by Japanese troops.

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No Easy Day

For the first time anywhere, the first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy Seal who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments. Writing under a pseudonym to protect his anonymity, a member of the elite SEAL Team Six provides a behind-the-scenes, first-person account of all his dangerous assignments around the globe, including the training, planning and execution of his most important mission, the killing of Osama bin Laden.

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Red Platoon

Red Platoon is a firsthand account of the Battle for COP Keating, told by Clinton Romesha, who spearheaded both the defense of the outpost and the counterattack that drove the Taliban back beyond the wire and received the Medal of Honor for his actions.

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Soldier Girls

Describes the experiences of three women soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq to reveal how their military service has affected their friendship, personal lives and families, detailing the realities of their work on bases and in war zones and how their choices and losses shaped their perspectives.

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Thank You For Your Service

Finkel, a journalist, follows the soldiers who serve in the Iraq War as they struggle to reintegrate into American society.

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Unbroken

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared--Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor.

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The Wall

 

A boy and his father come from far away to visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington and find the name of the boy's grandfather, who was killed in the conflict.

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War

Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm," turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat in this on-the-ground account that follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.

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The Yellow Birds

In the midst of a bloody battle in the Iraq War, two soldiers, bound together since basic training, do everything to protect each other from both outside enemies and the internal struggles that come from constant danger.

History/Overview

Veterans Day, observed on November 11th, commemorates all who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Previously known as Armistice Day and established to recognize the end of World War I, the holiday has evolved over time to remember and thank all American veterans. This day was declared a legal holiday in 1938 by an act of Congress.

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Veterans Day at TCC

TCC Links

To all who served, we are thankful for your service. Happy Veterans Day.

TCC Libraries Digital Display Archive

The Tarrant County College District Libraries are pleased to provide a wide assortment of digital displays and online exhibits designed to educate, inform, entertain, and engage our entire community, and to help support the learning experience outside of the traditional classroom environment.  To view more of these web-based displays, visit our Digital Display Archive page.