Saturday, November 11 is Veterans Day. We thought it a good idea to point you to some things about Michigan's veterans. As usual, if you know of some we missed (it happens, all the time) post them in the comments or send us an email!

Kalamazoo Veterans Memorial
photo by I am Jacques Strappe

• The Veteran's History Project is a very cool feature produced by the Library of Congress. It has a list of Michigan vets as well as photos and stories from veterans.
• The Michigan Department of Military & Veteran's Affairs and the Michigan Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) have information and links about programs for veterans and how you can help support veterans.
• The Michigan Family History Network's Michigan Civil War Files is a very comprehensive list of Michigan Civil War links.
• Try a search of Absolute Michigan for the keyword "Veteran"
• Michigan in Pictures had a cool feature this Memorial Day on the Michigan Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Detroit which (in 1871) was "Erected by the people of Michigan in honor of the martyrs who fell and the heroes who fought in defence of Liberty and Union"
• That monument was re-dedicated in 2005 and a time capsule was placed within by the Detroit Historical Museum that includes lists of Michigan vets who fell in wars from the 90,747 who died in the Civil War to those who had lost their lived in the Iraq War.
• Speaking of the Iraq War, 102 Michigan soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq as of this writing. We are one of 8 states to lose more than 100 soldiers in this war.
• Something that former Governor William Milliken said in his interview with Tim Skubick this summer that struck me powerfully was this: "I think that during World War II, the entire country was involved in the sacrifice that had to be made in order to achieve the goals of defeating the tyranny of Germany and the horror of war. But today, we are not being called upon to sacrifice. We go on and live our lives, we sometimes we are oblivious of the fact that young men and women are in Iraq today and they are dying and we don‚Äôt seem to understand or accept that fact. We are not called upon to sacrifice personally. The president calls for tax cuts for all of us and not for sacrifice to pay the taxes that that war is costing. And so, I think there is something morally and ethically wrong as we cope with this very difficult and this very tragic war in which we now are engaged."
• Finally, of all the photos I looked at this morning - quite a lot of them, including all these in a search for "Michigan Army" at the Library of Congress (sometimes we forget all those who labored in support of the troops) - this one by sistercat moved me the most.