Although we will not be posting a regular article today while we observe Memorial Day, we do wish to acknowledge and honor the sacrifice that our fighting men and women in uniform have made for liberty, home, family and country. Please join us in wishing our living military a safe return home, and wishing the families of those struck down in battle the thanks of a grateful nation.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Memorial Day
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15 comments:
agreed!
Below are the number of combat deaths and wounded for all of service men and women from our Revolution to the "War on Terror".
Did you know that there are still over 30,000 missing service men from WWII? I had no idea that there are so many families who have never known what happened to their loved ones.
Numbers of Dead and Wounded from 1775–Present
Combat Deaths 848,163
Other Deaths 437,421
Total Deaths 1,343,812
Total Wounded 1,529,230
Total Deaths/Wounded 2,872,042 Missing 38,159
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war#Wars_ranked_by_total_deaths
For anyone who's interested, here's a selection of the stories of recent Medal of Honor recipients from Afghanistan. They're all moving, but especially that of SSgt. Miller.
http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/afghanistan.html
Happy Memorial Day, everyone.
Tennessee: Welcome back. Good to have you back in our circle of friends for Memorial Day.
Bev: I didn't know the number, but in war as massive as WW II, it's not entirely surprising that there might be that many still counted as missing. I'd guess the bulk of them would be in the Pacific Theater, but that would just be a guess.
T-Rav: Thanks. Ennobling and touching at the same time. Here's a clickable link: Medal of Honor--Afghanistan.
For those who think that war is never justified, I believe this quote is appropriate, particularly given what we constantly hear from the left:
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." --John Stuart Mill
Today we honor those better men.
Tehachapi Tom: Lincoln carried that thought forward at Gettysburg: "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
"That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." -- A. Lincoln
Euripedes: Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had speech-makers who understood the lessons of brevity and poignancy the way Lincoln did?
God Bless, all of our military heroes past, and present.
Bev, Those are sobering numbers.
I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing Memorial Day.
Stan: And amen to that.
Andrew - Multiply that by the losses from other countries in the same time period. It's just sad to think that most of them were probably young men between 17 and 25 yrs old.
Bev: I may be wrong on my numbers, but I think that Russia lost more than anyone in the two world wars. But there comes a point that no matter how many are lost, and who lost them, it just seems like far too many. That is why it's too easy for the left to convince decent people that war is never necessary.
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