Veterans and Armistice Day

As the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade passes by, 7-year-old Christian Patino offers a salute. Christian also held a sign honoring his cousin Marine Daniel R. Valencia, who served in Iraq.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Jose Nieto of Corona, front, stands with other members of the armed forces during the singing of the national anthem. The Dodgers hosted the group during batting practice on Veterans Day.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Christopher Miller-Root and his son Jorden,6, take a snapshot as they sit in the Dodgers’ dugout during the team’s Veterans Day batting practice. Miller-Root’s mother, Monica Root, far left, is a Blue Star mom.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Homeless veterans gather at the Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles to raise a U.S. flag on Veterans Day.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Homeless Navy veteran Kenneth Jones receives a pat on the shoulder from a friend during the Midnight Mission’s Veterans Day celebration.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Navy veteran Curtiss Brown joined other veterans at the Midnight Mission.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Marine Corps veteran Steven Bell, 49, salutes during the presentation of the colors during a Veterans Day observance at the Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles. The event also included patriotic music, testimonials and a color guard.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Members of the military stand at attention before a ceremony where President Obama laid a commemorative wreath for Veterans Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.  (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

President Obama during a ceremony on Veterans Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.   (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

A visitor at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on Veterans Day.  (J. David Ake / Associated Press)

A Vietnam veteran traces the name of a service member killed in the war from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day.  (PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP/Getty Images)

A honor guard member stands at attention before a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.  (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

British military personnel, veterans and members of the public observe two minutes of silence on Armistice Day at the Cenotaph in central London in memory of Britain’s war dead. In the run-up to Armistice Day (called Veterans Day in the U.S.), many Britons wear on their lapels a red paper poppy symbolizing the poppies which grew on French and Belgian battlefields during World War I.   (ANDREW COWIE / AFP/Getty Images)

Soldiers stand at attention by the tomb of the unknown soldier during Armistice Day ceremonies marking the end of World War I at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. French President Francois Hollande reviewed troops around Paris’ iconic memorial and laid a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier beneath the arch to commemorate France’s war victims.  (REMY DE LA MAUVINIERE / AFP/Getty Images)

Monday marks the 95th anniversary of the signing of the armistice between the Allied forces of World War I and Germany at Compiegne, France. The armistice was signed in the early hours of Nov. 11, 1918, and took effect at 11 a.m. of that day, bringing an end to the World War I hostilities on the Western Front and essentially ending the First World War. The photo shows troops of the 1st Australian Division in 1917.  (Frank Hurley / Getty Images)

The bodies of hundreds of Italian soldiers lie dead on the battlefield, victims of a gas and flame attack during World War I, as others haul the wounded on stretchers.  (Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

World War II veteran Harry Marrington from Portsmouth, England, leans down to pick up a paper poppy during an Armistice Day ceremony under the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, on Monday. The Menin Gate Memorial bears the names of more than 54,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are not known. The Duke of Edinburgh will attend a special Armistice Day ceremony Monday and lay a poppy wreath.  (Virginia Mayo / Associated Press)