Patrick K. O’Donnell on Veterans Day: ‘So Many Fake Heroes in Society Today,’ Real Heroes ‘Sacrifice Their Lives for This Great Country’

Rich Terrell

John Hayward  . . . "'For instance, the entire Middle East was created from a flawed treaty from World War One,” he noted. “The rise of communism, international finance, America’s rise to the world stage, all begins in World War One, the modern military. It’s an incredibly important event.”

“Very few people know about it. It’s kind of a lost generation in many ways. That generation of doughboys that fought World War One is an incredible generation that’s largely been lost to time. To this generation, we don’t even know about them and what they fought for, why they fought for liberty and freedom, in one of the most brutal wars of the 20th Century where millions died,” O’Donnell said.

“The sacrifice that these individuals made for America is really staggering. This is a time when America was completely unprepared. The size of the standing army in 1917, 1916 was on par with, like, Belgium. That’s how small it was. It had to grow to nearly four million men overnight. That in itself is an incredible story of how we mobilized, and really the United States made the difference in World War One,” he said.

“One of the most deadly battles of World War One was at the Meuse-Argonne, which took place beginning on September 26th, and it spans all the way to November 11th. Some of the most deadly combat occurred after the armistice was effectively signed. On November 10th, men were still crossing the Meuse river,” he recalled." . . .

Amazing then and now photos of WW1 battlefields  

1916: a French soldier walks in the ruins of Verdun after German bombing. 11 March 2014: a car is parked near the former Episcopal Palace. Verdun was the site of one of the bloodiest, longest and most costly battles of the entire conflict. The attack on the city was conceived by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, who initiated a massive offensive to break French troops. After months of bombardment, the French managed to hold the line against the Germans. There were an estimated 700,000 casualties.