by linder6580 at www.sxc.hu
Do we appreciate our military like previous generation did? We make passing remarks about the military at special events like ball games, but it is not as personal as it was in the past it seems to me.
I think the reason is that most families do not have someone in active military service. There is no “skin in the game” you might say.
Here are the statistics to prove it:
- 16.1 million Americans served in the military during World War 2. In 1945 America had a population of 138,397,346. The number of Americans who served would be 11.56% of the population. So many others who did not serve directly were in support roles that had military ties. Most all families had sons, brothers, and fathers who were fighting overseas.
- 8.7 million Americans served in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973. In 1970, we had a total population of 205,052,174. Thus the number of active war participants was 4.26%. If you look at the height of active duty soldiers it was 3.5 million around 1970. This would be 1.7% of the population.
- Presently 2,266,883 soldiers serve in our military. This is less than 1% of the total population (0.7%) which was put at 310 million in 2010. Most of our families do not have a person in active duty military service.
My Observations:
- It is somewhat concerning to me that we have less than 1% of our population defending our population. It seems like kind of a low military to citizens ratio.
- We appreciate our military and their service. But we look at our soldiers differently because we recognize their uniform, not their face. We say kind things of appreciation, but we don’t give hugs or shed tears at their return because they are not our family. Now obviously, this is not the case for all, but the case for most of the population. So my challenge to you on this Memorial Day is to look and reflect upon our military as if they were your family member. I think having a little “skin in the game” will make all the difference in how we appreciate our military servants.
What are your observations about these statistics?
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