Georgia Lombard won an Amazon gift card during Library Card Sign-Up Month at the Warsaw Community Public Library. Photo provided by Robin Fosnaugh.

By Amy Mann, Children’s Services
Warsaw Community Public Library

If you were to look at a photo collage of U.S. military veterans, you would see men and women of varying ages and ethnicities. From new recruits to more seasoned members of the armed forces whose jackets are adorned with medals, these hard-working people help to maintain the freedom of the nation we call home.

America’s military serves in more than 100 countries around the world. Military families sometimes live in parts of the world that they never imagined seeing and are subject to long periods of separation from their loved ones.

Interestingly, immigrants to the U.S. have been welcomed into the military since the founding of this country. Hundreds of thousands of people who were born in other countries, but who pledged allegiance to the U.S., have fought in conflicts from the Revolutionary War to the most recent fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Around 24,000 legal permanent residents were actively serving in 2012, and foreign-born veterans number over 500,000. Additionally, many have given their lives in combat, and are honored on Memorial Day every May alongside their American brothers and sisters. Over the last century, military service has provided a pathway to American citizenship for more than 760,000 immigrant service members. Mexico and the Philippines have provided the most veterans from other nations, followed by countries such as Germany, Canada, Haiti and India.

Warsaw Community Public Library will be closed on Veteran’s Day, which falls on a Friday this year. Veterans Day is celebrated Nov. 11 every year in the United States. You may pick up a calendar of events at the library during operating hours or find it anytime on the library’s website at warsawlibrary.org. As always, you’re invited to come in to find non-fiction, biographies and historical fiction resources to illuminate the past. Join WCPL in being thankful for the sacrifices of armed forces members and their families.