Army veteran Dennis Christie of Parker and Navy veteran LeRoy Bunyan of Renfrew (both members of the American Legion Riders) laid a wreath in Diamond Park during the Veterans Day memorial service, Wednesday, November 11, 2020.

While the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of the annual Veterans Day Parade in downtown Butler, John Cyprian, the county director of Veterans Services, ensured that those who fought and died in the service of their country were still honored on Wednesday.

A ceremony commemorating the armistice that ended World War I was held at 10:30 a.m. in Diamond Park, where the gray, drizzly skies complimented the doleful atmosphere of the event.

Cyprian apprised those in attendance of the circumstances causing the U.S. to adopt a policy of nonintervention in the Great War until public opinion changed when a German U-boat sank the ocean liner Lusitania in 1915, one year after the war broke out in Europe.

By the spring of 1917, the U.S. officially entered World War I.

Cyprian spoke of the brutality of the war, which included bloody battles, trench warfare and open fighting until November 1918, when Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated and the new German republic sued for peace after troops lost morale.

After 8.5 million military casualties, the war ended with an armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Thursday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article about the event.