Events

September 11th of each year is a day set aside by federal law as “Patriot Day,” in honor of the individuals who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks against the United States that occurred on September 11, 2001.

By Presidential proclamation and Gubernatorial Executive Order both the U.S. flag and the flag of the State of Wisconsin are to be flown at half-staff on September 11, "Patriot Day," from sunrise until sunset.

A moment of silence should be observed at 7:46 a.m. central daylight time (8:46 a.m. EDT), the time of the first attack hitting its intended target on September 11, 2001, in honor of the individuals who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks on that day.

Each year, the third Friday in September is set aside to honor the commitment and the sacrifices made by this nation's Prisoners of War and those who are still Missing in Action, as well as their families.
Pursuant to 2001 Wisconsin Act 100, the State of Wisconsin has declared that the third Friday of September should be annually designated as POW/MIA Recognition Day in Wisconsin.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day legislation was introduced yearly, until 1995, when it was deemed by Congress that legislation designating special commemorative days would no longer be considered by Congress. The President now signs a proclamation each year.

National POW/MIA Recognition Day is one of the six days specified by federal law on which the black POW/MIA flag shall be flown over federal facilities and cemeteries, post offices and military installations.

On Friday, September 18, 2020, Governor Tony Evers, WDVA Secretary Mary Kolar, DOR Secretary Peter Barca, VFW State Commander Jason Johns, and Rolling Thunder Wisconsin State Liaison Mark Herrmann unveiled the POW MIA Chair of Honor at a small ceremony at the Wisconsin State Capitol.  To view the ceremony, click here​.

POW/MIA Facts:
Of the 125,214 Americans surviving captivity, about 29,350 were estimated to be alive as of the end of 2005. Records show that 142,246 Americans were captured and interned during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Somalia and Kosovo conflicts, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

More than 78,000 Americans are unaccounted for from WWII, more than 8,100 American servicemen from the Korean War, and at the end of the Vietnam War, there reportedly were 2,583 unaccounted for American prisoners, missing or killed in action/body not recovered.

As of September 1, 2006, 1,798 Americans are still so listed by the Defense Department, over 90% of them in Vietnam or in areas of Laos and Cambodia where Vietnamese forces operated during the war. One hundred twenty-six Americans are still listed as missing in action and unaccounted-for from the Cold War.

World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. However, the fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.” The following year, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day, saying "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.” The original conception of Armistice Day called for parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business at 11:00 am.

In May 1938, an act passed declaring November 11th a legal holiday dedicated to the cause of peace and to be celebrated and known as Armistice Day. In 1954, after the United States had mobilized troops for World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd Congress amended that act by replacing the word armistice with the word veterans. Thus November 11th became known as Veterans Day, a day to honor veterans of all wars. In October 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation and created a Veterans Day Committee to coordinate the planning for Veterans Day activities.

With the passage of the Uniforms Holiday Bill in 1968, the observance of Veterans Day was moved to a Monday. October 25, 1971, was the first Veterans Day not celebrated on November 11th. Due to the historic and patriotic significance of November 11th, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law in 1975 returning the day to November 11, beginning in 1978.

Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11, regardless of the day of the week on which it falls, preserving the significance of the date. It also focuses attention on the true purpose of Veterans Day:  a celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

Visit the WDVA's Veterans Day page​.

Much of what our country and our lives are like today was shaped by events that occurred on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor.

In the two years before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, our European allies were—one by one—falling before the Nazi war machine. By 1941, only England remained free. To our west, Japanese military forces were steamrolling across the Pacific Rim.

Over the course of a quiet Sunday morning on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, the United States of America passed from precarious neutrality to all-out war. It was a war fought on every continent of the globe. And it touched the lives of all who lived at that time.

The Second World War came to America in the form of a sudden and massive air assault by Japanese Imperial forces. Early in the morning 183 Japanese fighter planes took off from aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean. They used broadcasts from Honolulu radio stations to help them navigate. The planes arrived off the coast of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, shortly before 8:00 in the morning. Radar at Pearl Harbor had picked up the fleet, but the Americans assumed the planes were B-17 bombers coming from California. Bombs began to drop over the docks at Pearl Harbor along "battleship row." Approximately an hour later 168 more planes appeared dropping more bombs.

The assault claimed 2,403 American lives and left more than a thousand others wounded. The mighty battleship Arizona sustained a direct hit by an armor-piercing bomb, and nine minutes later went down with 1,177 sailors and marines entombed in its hull forever.

Later that morning, when the Japanese fighter planes finally turned out to sea, eight battleships had been sunk or heavily damaged along with many cruisers and destroyers.

American airpower, too, was crippled. More than 325 planes—clustered wing-to-wing on the Harbor’s surrounding airfields—were destroyed. Within a matter of hours, the bulk of America’s naval and air power in the Pacific lay in smoldering ruin.

The devastation left the nation stunned and shaken to its core.

For the people of the United States of America, December 7, 1941 marked the first of 1,351 days of war. It mobilized 16 million young Americans. Almost three hundred thousand of them would die in battle. And more that 600,000 would become its casualties. December 7, 1941 was a defining moment in our nation’s history. As then-President Franklin Roosevelt told the country, it was indeed “a day that will live in infamy.”​​​