BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON | NOV 26, 2025
Thanksgiving is the crown jewel of a month-long celebration, commemoration and for many a deeply personal reflection of our heritage.
We just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps, which was commissioned by the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775.
The following day, we commemorated the American men and women who have served and are serving in the Armed Forces. Veterans Day is the successor to the Armistice Day observance of the end of World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
H.G Wells called it “the war that will end war”, the title of his book written in 1914 claiming that the defeat of the central powers in Europe would eliminate the need for war in the future. Well, you can’t be right all the time.
It is understandable why November is often referred to as National Veterans and Military Families Month.
On Nov. 18th the nation observed the Mayflower dropping anchor at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts in 1620. Days prior to the landing the Pilgrim leaders aboard signed the Mayflower Compact. The Compact created what the Pilgrims called a civil body ‘politick’.
All three anniversaries are part of my ancestral past. It is highly likely that Mayflower passengers Francis Cooke and his 13-year-old son, John, were ancestors. Their perilous journey was supposed to take them to Virginia but foul weather carried them to Plymouth. Francis was one of the 41 men on board who signed the Compact, which would serve as the framework for law and order and the exercise of self-governance in the new colony.
The Compact in part declared that:
“…Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.”
I’ve always been humbled by the descriptions of what the Pilgrims went through while crammed aboard the Mayflower for two agonizing months and then on American soil, building a new colony and a new nation in such an unknown and daunting wilderness. Half of the Pilgrim community did not even survive the first year. Native Americans suffered, too, as the flood of new immigrants continued and a new tide of European culture, traditions, expansionist ambition, disease, and degradation altered their way of life forever.
Skip ahead a few centuries. One of my forebears fought in the war of 1812. My great–great–grandfather was a member of an Ohio regiment that fought in the Civil War.
My Mother and Father were both Marines during World War II. They were stationed in North Carolina when they met and later married, no doubt with high expectations of having three incredible children, especially this middle one. Dad served in the Pacific theater but if he saw combat he never spoke of it. My Mother, who was an executive assistant to the base commander, had three brothers who all saw combat in the war. One was in the infantry, another a reconnaissance pilot in the Pacific, who once flew with World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker, and another in the Army who served in the Honor Guard for General Douglas MacArthur. Veterans Day was also special because one of our daughters is a veteran of the U.S. Army and Army Reserve and is now among the civilian staff at the Pentagon.
It is, indeed, a day for personal remembrance. Members of one son-in-law’s family put themselves in harm’s way: an Army logistics officer; Marine helicopter pilots, one of whom saw combat, and an Army Ranger in Vietnam who fought in the battle of Hamburger Hill.
Veterans Day is a good time for all of us to remember the countless other family members who served in the Armed Forces, some at the cost of life or limb. The stories of their courage, heroism, sacrifice and duty to country far exceed those of failure.
I am not a veteran. I flunked my induction physical for the Army during the Vietnam era twice. As it turned out, it may have rescued my health from a long-term path of destruction, not just because it kept me out of the Vietnam War, but because it revealed two serious ailments that left untreated would have caused me serious problems, and maybe even an early demise. I’ve forgotten much in my life, but not that conflicted time, what fate handed me and how much it changed those of my generation who served in tough times that often rendered no appreciation and no inner peace.
It is in family and community history that we learn much about the sacrifices, successes, agonizing defeats, and the gargantuan challenges our ancestors faced in getting us to this place and time in the American experience.
Ken Burns in his documentary, The American Revolution, reminds us that the war for independence was among the bloodiest and most costly. Over more than eight years the revolutionary forces of the colonies gave everything they had to the cause of liberty. It was unimaginable suffering and sacrifice.
It’s estimated that between 25,000-70,000 deaths occurred, 17,000 not from musket rounds and bayonets, but disease. The most common were typhus, typhoid, smallpox and dysentery. Many didn’t eat for days. Their uniforms were rags and their feet often bare.
Much of the same torment plagued American service men and women in a steady stream of military conflict that the United States found itself in over two centuries. There are lessons in all of them. There is knowledge we will never cease to benefit us and memories, many painful, that will ensure we never forget.
History enables us to see back beyond our own brief lifespans, giving us the advantage of hindsight and perspective. Both help us understand much better who we are, what we have, and what we owe the nation and each other.
History has exposed us to the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly of human behavior in the growth of the Union. It has left us with the task of cleaning up the messes, improving upon the successes and making sure through civic and history education that our descendants get a full and honest view of what happened before them and what we learned from it.
It is incumbent on each of us to think about why this time is so important and what we must do as this holiday passes into its own history to preserve the blessings that have been bestowed us, including a degree of transparency and recognition of our failures. Other civilizations have been denied that knowledge and have been unable to benefit from a balance of both success and failure.
To suggest that citizens of this country no longer have control of or influence over their governance and are too tired and disillusioned to do something about it contributes to the demise of democratic rule. We should not minimize the challenges we are confronted with, nor should we minimize the American ability to rebuild, reform, and renew.
These times do demand more of us, especially how to simply conduct civil conversations. When the media begin instructing us on how to talk to each other at the Thanksgiving dinner table, we know there’s a chronic problem of immense proportion.
That is one reason why my co-author Jerry Climer and I wrote Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People. We believed then and believe now that a civically engaged and knowledgeable public can rule. We also believe the process must start with Congress, which is the real People’s House, not the White House. It is on Capitol Hill where the greatest impact can and should occur. It remains the citizenry’s first line of defense, notwithstanding its dismal performance over the past few years.
This time in history reminds of what we owe to future generations especially that part about cleaning up the messes we have made.
Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a new book, Fixing Congress: Restoring Power to the People and an earlier book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is co-founder and former Board chair of the Congressional Institute. Johnson is retired. He is married to Thalia Assuras and has five children and four grandchildren.