"The Last Full Measure."

More than 1,400,000 of your fellow Americans have died in the service to their Country.  Our Country.

On November 11, 1918, President Woodtrow Wilson inaugurated Veterans Day.  To consecrate and honor and provide eternal remembrance for those who fought and died in the service to this, the Greatest Country on Earth. 

Although you may not know it, Americans have fought in 12 major, and more than 100 minor wars since we declared our independence.  Starting with our first, the Revolutionary War.  Here is a list of the ones costing us the most lives:

     -  Civil War     620,975

     -  WW2          405,399

     -  WW1          116,516

     -  Vietnam*      58,218

     -  Korean*        36,516

In fact, our Country's soldiers and sailors and airmen have been dispatched to foreign wars for 222 of its 241 year history.  Without their wishes or stated goals or desires.  It's what their Country wanted.  And they answered.  And many of them died.

Just think of all the songs that weren't written.  All the plays that weren't staged.  All the inventions that weren't dreamed up.  All the medicines that weren't devised, and all the new benefits to mankind that weren't conceived.  In fighting and dying, these brave men and women were erased from the gene pool.  Leaving their moms and dads and brothers and sisters alone.  But richer because their son or daughter contributed to the safety and security of America.

15.4% of our poeple were directly engaged in the Second World War.  11.5% served in the Vietnam Conflict.  And then we decided that an all-volunteer military was the better idea.  And those soldiers and sailors and airmen protecting America today are older, and smarter, and better educated, and better trained, and more likely to make the military their career.  Yet only 0.78% of Americans are now keeping America safe.

And just so you know, more than 11,000 of our men and women have died in armed conflict just since 9/11.

There are 1,700,000 Veterans of military service in America today.  Please try and find one or two and shake their hands.  And thank them for sacrificing their time and effort and energy, and for risking their lives, for our benefit.  

This is Veterans Day.  Please try and remain worthy.

*    Both Vietnam and Korea were "Police Actions."  They apparently didn't rise in importance to the level of "wars."  Yet they were imporant enough to cost us the lives of nearly 100,000 of our families and friends and neighbors.