President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country.
On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department the Department of Defense.
To download a pdf copy of the above graphic click on the following link: http://legacy.grandforksherald.com/pdfs/ArmedForcesDay2011.pdf
Information is from http://www.defense.gov/afd/
If you get the chance, say thank you to members of the military for their service. I would like to say THANK YOU to my niece, Dani, who is currently serving overseas in the Air Force!
Here are some activities you can use with the newspaper from the NIE Institute.
1. Look through the newspaper for mentions of either active military officials or veterans of war. Why are they mentioned? Create a bulletin board or scrapbook with related articles and photographs. You may want to use an entire week’s worth of papers.
2. Do a newspaper scavenger hunt for at least 15 words that could refer to Armed Forces Day (example: war; holiday; military; etc.). When the 15 words are found, write your own short story using at least 10 of the words you’ve chosen. Give your story a military theme.
3. Many military personnel are on active duty. Find an article that deals with one of our current military operations. Work with two or three fellow students to write an article in favor of or against our current military action. Schedule a classroom debate to discuss the pros and cons.
4. Invite local military personnel to visit your classroom. Have students write feature stories about the visitors, discussing their lives to share with other students.