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Hump Day SOS How Many Have Sacrificed?

How Many Sacrificed Lives for Freedom?

David Rhodes

As we celebrated Memorial Day this past Monday I started wondering how many Americans have sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom in wars and conflicts over the years. It is difficult to find two sources with the exact same numbers but they are all relatively close.

American Revolution - 4,435

War of 1812- 2,260

Mexican War - 13,284

Civil War - 618,000

Spanish American War - 2,446

World War I- 116,516

World War II- 405,399

Korean War - 36,574

Vietnam War- 58,220

Gulf War- 383

Iraq/Afghanistan- 6,607

Source: Department of Veteran Affairs as of Jan 1, 2015

This is not inclusive of 64 other conflicts from the Barbary Pirates to the Bay of Pigs to bombing in Beirut that resulted in 1000’s of more deaths. So with the 1,264,123 in declared wars and another 6,300 in other conflicts and operations the total is somewhere around 1,270,427. We all know that documentation wasn’t very good in the early days of this country so that is a close best guess based on the available information.

I thank them all for the sacrifice and I thank their families for going on and moving forward to continue the great work of building a great nation built upon these sacrifices!

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Comment by Bobby Halton on May 28, 2015 at 12:44pm: I think the world also needs to thank the millions of American veterans who served and gave of their time, talent and treasure. Many of those who are lucky enough to return, returned different than when they left, some with scars that we can see and some with scars that we can't. We owe them all an incredible debt one we can never hope repay but a debt nonetheless. It is with the deepest humility and sincerity that we express on behalf of everyone at the pennwell Corporation our most heartfelt gratitude for all the sacrifice and service the American military service personnel have offered in the name of freedom and liberty.

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