It’s Veterans Day in the United States, and we honor our veterans that had served in the armed forces, some 20 million of them.
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the end of World War I, also called the ‘Great War’, and the ‘War to End all Wars’ (if only that could become true). Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
I am not a combat veteran – but I did serve in the South African Air Force, for two years. (The SA Air Force was active in WWII, the Korean War, as well as the South African Border War in Angola, 1966 – 1989). This 1986 picture is from my candidate officers’ training course, a four-day field exercise that we called ‘Operasie Gogga’ (loose translation: ‘Operation Nasty & Ugly Bug’). Look for me in the middle of the picture, to the right, and below the blue ‘Castle of Good Hope’ star on the helicopter. The helicopter is a French-made Alouette III, and was taken out of service in the South African Air Force in 2006, after 44 years.
