This year Veterans Day in Fort Lee was forever connected to American patriot and soldier Thomas Paine. Fort Lee VFW Commander Jimmy Viola this week unveiled a new portion of the wonderful monument wall outside the VFW Post known as Veterans Square. 

The new addition is a quote from Thomas Paine and reads, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, so that my children may have peace.” 

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, in his Veterans Day speech in Veterans Square, spoke for my generation when he said the reason we did not have to join the service and fight for our country is because of the men who stood on Center Ave. in Veterans Square today, our veterans. Sokolich said Paine’s words, now etched on the wall in Veterans Square, speak for all of us on this day.

This year, Veterans Day falls on the date 11/11/11 and is a time to think back to its origins. Originally known as Armistice Day, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day on November 11, 1919. This day was to commemorate the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I.

That Armistice to end that war was signed on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. That war to end all wars saw a generation lost in the trenches of France. New Jersey-born poet and World War I hero, Joyce Kilmer, one of the members of the great Fighting 69th, wrote a poem called Rouge Bouquet that reads in part:

In a wood they call Rouge Bouquet

There is a new-made grave today,

Built by never a spade nor pick

Yet covered with earth 10 meters thick,

There lie many fighting men,

Dead in their youthful prime,

Never to laugh nor love again

Nor taste the Summertime

Sergeant Joyce Kilmer was never to taste the summertime again either; he was killed in action at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

We who are left, Americans today, must know this history and breath life into it, not only to honor the memory of Kilmer and his comrades, but also to teach our young people the horrors of war and the great sacrifice and loss that is the result. This must make us all appreciate our freedom and lead us to preserve it in every way possible, from the ballot box to the battlefield; Americans all must hold our freedom dear as we have for over 235 years.

The Fort Lee Historical Society maintains an archive of books, paintings and archival items that date to the American Revolution as it happened here from the summer of 1776 through Nov. 20 of that same year. As we noted in previous archive pieces, the collection includes pamphlets by Thomas Paine, who served as adjutant to General Nathanael Greene, the commander of Fort Constitution, which became Fort Lee, so named by General George Washington in the fall of 1776. 

Ours is a revolutionary town, one named by General Washington. Next time you run an errand or visit a restaurant or hardware store on Main St., use your imagination to envision General Washington, General Greene and Thomas Paine leading over 2,000 American soldiers up Main St. towards Fort Lee Rd. on a cold Nov. 20, 1776 as they escaped British capture to fight another day. 

This, the greatest "Retreat to Victory" in American history, happened on our own Main St., and it's appropriate that our local VFW Post is adjacent to this retreat route.  We will recreate the Retreat to Victory on Nov. 19 at 11:45 a.m. at the entrance to the Fort Lee Historic Park on Hudson Terrace and Bruce Reynolds Boulevard (Bridge Plaza South) – please join the re-enactors and march up Main St. to our own Monument Park to commemorate this page of American history.

Thomas Paine said of his time in Fort Lee, “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

On this Veterans Day, a cool fall day, spend some time thinking of those soldiers who, as Kilmer said, were never to taste the summertime again.