I decided to take a different path this year.
I think all of you know how I feel on this topic, and next year I will be forced to address it like I normally do.
Simple because I think that this is a one trick pony way of doing it this year.
So here we go …
All information listed below is gathered from different government sites, and I will not take any responsibility for the governments’ numbers being wrong.
World War #1 - 117,000 American Soldiers gave their lives, for us!
World War #2 - 292,000 American Soldiers gave us their families, for us!
Korean War - 33,000 American Soldiers lost everything they knew & loved, for us!
Vietnam War - 58,168 American Soldiers decided to give us everything they had, for us!
Now, I am not going to get into all of the other wars such as: The Colonial Wars, Revolutionary War, Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Banana Wars, Lebanon Crisis, Grenada, Beirut, Panama, and of course all of the other conflicts we have involved ourselves in, or the current conflicts in the Middle East, where we are losing soldiers every day.
Speaking of that, we currently have Soldiers stationed all over the world.
Although I tried to gather more information on those numbers, I was only able to find one that everyone would recognize, per say.
We currently have 183,000 Soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
That’s a lot of people!
And speaking of that, let’s take a look at some other numbers.
These aren’t the Soldiers who have already given us their lives, but the ones who are currently willing to do that for us.
The following numbers are based off of the financial reports of the forth quarter of 2009.
The US Army has approximately 540,000 soldiers
The National Guard has approximately 360,500
Army Reserves 197,000
Navy approximately 330,000
Navy Reserves approximately 124,000
Marines approximately 203,000
Marine reserves 40,000
Air Force approximately 330,000
Air Force Reserves approximately 69,000
Air National Guard approximately 95,000
Grand Total = 2,288,500 Soldiers ready to give their lives for you, at any given moment!
Now let us not forget the Soldiers who came home to us, either.
You know the ones, the ones who are crippled, both mentally and physically.
Constantly tormented from everything from missing limbs, to being stuck in a bed unable to see and/or hear anything, other than the screams they relive, everyday, in their heads.
This also does not include the poor souls who came home, but could not survive and/or not be able to live with what they had done and had seen, and then decided to take their own lives, one way or another.
Anything from drugs and alcohol, to guns and stepping in front of trains.
That’s that, as always, thanks simply doesn’t say enough!
I hope these numbers will help you understand why these people are so special.
They do what we can’t, won’t, and are just all around afraid to do.
So in closing, I say thank you, and reuse the old saying that “Freedom isn’t Free“!
Please, sit back and remember what that means, what people have given, and are still giving for us, so that we can say that we are Free!
And for the few out there who disagree, remember this …
Jack Nicholson’s character, Col. Nathan R. Jessep, in the movie, “A Few Good Men”, said this, and I think it says it very well ...
“ … my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. I know, deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you don't Want me on that wall, you Need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.”
