Column: I’ve enlisted for the second time in my life

In my 2017 observance of Veterans Day, I carried out an action that’s been deeply rewarding for me.

I joined up. Yep, I enlisted.

Not in the military. As a matter of fact, I joined the U.S. Army and took the oath of enlistment more than half a century ago. At that time I was a freckle-faced 19-year-old.

No, last month, as a maturing 72-year-old, I joined the American Legion. And I must say that I took the oath with solemnity and pride.

The American Legion is this nation’s largest service organization for wartime veterans. The U.S. Congress chartered the nonprofit group after World War I, in 1919.

The Legion played a significant role in crafting and passing the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 — better known as the G.I. Bill. That bill enabled me personally to get through college and graduate school in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Without it, my chances of earning three academic degrees would have been next to zero.

At the induction ceremony four weeks ago I saluted — the military hand salute — for the first time since 1967. It felt good. I experienced unanticipated chills running up and down my spine. I felt considerably more self-assured — and grateful — this time than when I executed my first salute at my Feb. 14, 1964 induction. That day, at the Los Angeles Induction Center, I raised my hand and pledged my fealty to my country.

I was slightly trepidatious during that ceremony, sensing that my life was about to change … drastically. And it did.

Not so this time. I felt deep gratitude.

I imagined that night as I stood in the Legion Hall that I was there on behalf of my grandfather, my dad, my four uncles, my brother and myself. We all proudly served in our nation’s military: Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. We were average Americans doing our service to our country.

The first and most obvious question of this story is: “Jim, why did it take you so long to join the Legion?”

I was one of 32 inducted last month into Newport Harbor Post 291 — the largest post in the nation with more than 7,000 members. It’s located on the Balboa Peninsula.

Some of the inductees began their service after 9/11, but most were Vietnam-era vets, like myself. One gentleman was a spry 100-year-old World War II veteran.

The two guys who got me interested in joining were my buddy of more than 40 years, Leon Skeie, and my old Costa Mesa High classmate, Mike Parks. Leon, a former Marine, joined the Legion a dozen years ago. Mike, who passed away last year, was an Army vet and a member of the American Legion for many years.

Both had long been urging me to join. My wife, Hedy, added her encouragement.

I always intended to do so; it’s just that I never seemed to get around to it … until now. Finally, and with great humility, I went forward.

Saturday, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day.

Veterans Day is the current designation for what used to be Armistice Day. Ninety-nine years ago — on Nov. 11, 1918 — at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the agreement that officially ended World War I was signed in a railway carriage in Compiegne, France.

Throughout the 1920s and ’30s most of the 48 states established Nov. 11 as a legal holiday. In 1938, Congress passed legislation making Nov. 11 a legal federal holiday, Armistice Day.

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation changing the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

When I was a boy, elderly gentlemen would sell red papier-mâché poppies door to door and in public places to honor veterans. My mom always bought the flowers.

With the passage of time we’ve forgotten the message of the lowly poppy. No longer do grizzled vets sell paper flowers to honor service.

Now, living poppies splash across springtime hillsides, and organizations like the American Legion keep the memory alive.

Thanks, veterans, for your service.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.