ST. LOUIS (KMOX)--On Veterans Day, amid sunshine peaking through the columns of Soldiers Memorial in downtown St. Louis, a small crowd appeared to hear an appeal from the French Society of St. Louis to remember the more than 1,000 lives lost during World War I fighting to liberate France.
The group produced a wreath to place in front of the large black granite cenotaph that dons the names of the fallen. Isabelle Heidbreder, from the French Consulate, spoke in her native tongue to the crowd, thanking the people of St. Louis who gave their lives for their cause.
French Americans broke out into song, singing the national anthem of their homeland. Then a moment of silence was called for by museum curator Michael Venzo.
As if to prove the Great War was a truly world affair, Ed Bachelor witnessed the ceremony in a green sports coat with a poppy on his lapel and below that a few medals for his 40 years of service in the Canadian Army as an engineer.
"It's good for my soul," said Ed Bachelor about attending the ceremony, "[Canadians] have a tendency to not be as patriotic as yourselves but certainly deep down each and every one of us but the uniform on for a purpose."
KMOX reporter Stuart McMillian was interviewing Mr. Bachelor when a U.S. Army Veteran, walking with a cane, approached, stopped, and saluted the Canadian. Both shook hands and were misty-eyed as they wished each other well.
"When you find yourself deployed in an operation, you generate close ties with those who you've served with," said Bachelor. "It's a brotherhood for those who were shoulder to shoulder and for those who were elsewhere making their personal contributions. There is an unwritten brotherhood."
The veteran with the cane is James Synlow of College Hill. He was in Somalia with the U.S. Army 75th Ranger Division during the Black Hawk Down incident in October of 1993.
"[Veterans Day] is an opportunity," Synlow said, "for every citizen of the United States to honor, to give thanks, and to remember the sacrifices that were made all the way back from [the Revolutionary War] to gain us our independence through every war that we had ever since...it's important to honor those who serve."
