Veterans Day

Today’s session of the Gabfest Club (Window on America center, Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine) had a topic “Veterans Day in the USA”. We were very grateful to our American volunteer Mr. Jason for attending this session as he is a US veteran himself and could tell the first hand stories about the life of the US veterans.
The session started with the introduction of the official web site of the veterans’ affairs department and demonstration of the History channel videos about the history of the Veterans Day celebration. Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans, that is, persons who served in the United States Armed Forces. It coincides with other holidays, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. The United States previously observed Armistice Day, the holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954. Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day.
 
The highlight of the session was the Q&A with the young veteran about his years in the US Army. Mr. Jason demonstrated to the group his army uniform and some other artifacts, introduced new vocabulary and gave an insight into the life of American military personnel.
The group gave Mr. Jason a round of applause when the Gabfest moderator thanked him for one year of volunteering at the WOA’s English-speaking Club and handed him a Gratitude Letter. At the end of the session Mr. Jason’s fans took photos with him in the US military uniform.
Number of participants – 31 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please