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Armistice Day commemorated the agreement to end hostilities in World War I–signed by the Allied nations and Germany on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. In 1954, Representative Ed Rees (KS) introduced a bill into Congress to establish the holiday to honor all veterans. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed HR7786 into law on 1 June 1954 and issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation on 8 October 1954. The first Veterans Day was celebrated that November. This is an image of the naturalization procedure that occurred on board the USS Missouri (BB-63) on that first Veterans Day in 1954. It was the first time a federal court session was held on board a battleship. Immigrants soon to be naturalized can be seen seated in the foreground. When this photograph was taken, the Missouri was at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. She arrived there in mid-September 1954 and remained there during the inactivation period until her decommissioning on 26 February 1955. The photograph was given to the Institute by Mrs. Sybil-Carmen North (wife of Commander James North, the Missouri’s last commanding officer before the 1955 decommissioning) and used in the Naval Institute Press book Battleship Missouri by Paul Stillwell (page 234). We at the Naval Institute salute all those who served and are serving still in the far corners of the earth!  Peter H. Daly VADM, USN (Ret.), CEO & Publisher Life Member and member since 1978 |