Today, November 11, is Veterans Day in the United States or Remembrance Day as we in Canada and several other Commonwealth countries refer to it. The Armistice to end the so-called Great War was signed on this day in 1918. The ceasefire took effect on the eleventh day, in the eleventh month, at eleven o’clock. Today is a day we honor and remember those who have served our respective countries in times of war and peace. This year also marks the centenary of the start of World War I. A young Walt Disney joined the American Red Cross with the hope of getting overseas before the war ended. Bad luck plagued him after he was accepted into the volunteer unit. First, he contracted influenza and his unit left for France while he recovered at home. Then came the signing of the Armistice - Disney was in Sound Beach, Connecticut, with his new unit when he heard the news. His unit was scheduled to be decommissioned and sent home the following day. Instead, by a stroke of fate, Disney’s name was pulled in a random draw. Fifty volunteers from his unit were chosen to go to France to work as chauffeurs, delivery men, and errand boys. Disney said his was the fiftieth name to be drawn. Disney served in France for just less than one year. He spent time in Le Havre, Paris, Soissons, Vittel, Chaumont, Rheims, and Strasbourg. He endured freezing temperatures, the rain, mud, substandard housing and substandard food. He managed to send part of his monthly salary home to his mother as well as winnings from a craps game he took part in – these funds became the seed money for his first company in Kansas City. Disney matured while in France. In later years, Disney looked back fondly on his time in France. “All of those things that I did, within that 11 months that I was over there, I had a lifetime wrapped up in experience and everything. It was such a valuable thing for me . . . everything was an experience to me then. And it never hurt me . . . [it] did nothing but help me.” So, as we remember those who have served and continue to serve our great countries in times of war and peace, let us also remember those volunteers who support the troops by providing the necessities of life and comforts of home. The following partial image, courtesy Phil Sears, shows Walt Disney atop a British Mark V tank that had been captured and pressed into service by the Germans. Disney had written on the back of this photo, “looking over the Hindenburg line.” The image was taken while Disney was in France as a Red Cross volunteer. The image has never been published previously.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:56:49 +0000
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