General Paul T. Johnson, United States Air Force to speak on Veteran’s Day

American Legion Davidson-Haltom Post 157 in Henderson will host a celebration ceremony on Veteran’s Day, Thursday, November 11th, at 11 AM in the Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of Henderson City Hall in Henderson, TN to honor all military veterans who sacrificed their time, and often their lives, to safeguard the United States of America. The public is encouraged to attend the one-hour ceremony.
Major General Paul T. Johnson, United States Air Force (retired) is the Guest Speaker. General Johnson, who retired after 31 years of active service in 2016, recently moved to Henderson, TN. General Johnson is one of only 196 persons in the history of the US Air Force to receive the Air Force Cross, the nation’s second highest award for valor, as an A-10 pilot during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in 1991.
Veteran’s Day celebrations originated as “Armistice Day” and were celebrated every year on November 11th to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France at 5:45 am, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o’clock in the morning—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”.
While the Treaty of Versailles that officially ended hostilities between the Allied and Axis powers were not signed until June 28, 1919, almost everyone worldwide celebrates the 1918 armistice that ended armed conflict as the end of World War One.
Exactly one year later, on November 11, 1919, President Wilson proclaimed the first “Armistice Day”. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and November 11th became a national holiday beginning in 1938. In 1954 the Congress changed the name to Veteran’s Day” and President Eisenhower issued the first Veteran’s Day Proclamation.